
;A-' 



■.%.'■ , 






m 



i' '■<' 



,*•• 



.'J\ 




m^mjh-im 









y^^p 






13 










!!J'"<f. 



?A 



4A 

v^5 





Class 



Book^-lAi GL 



OKt'K-IAI, l>0]NrA'riON. 



*W' 



PAPKRS 

z^9 



READ BEFORK THE 



Wisconsin TeacUBFS'flssociaiion 



1898-1899. 



Bulletin of Information No. 6, 



ISSUED BY 

L. D. HARVEY, State Superintendent. 




MADISON 

Democrat Printing Company, State Printer, 

1900. 



WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



CHARTER. 

An Act to incorporate the Wisconsin Teachers' Association. 

The People of the State of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assem- 
bly, do enact as follows: 

Section 1. John G. McMynn, J. L. Pickard, E. Hodges, C. B. Goodrich, 
R. O. Kellogg, W. Van Ness, D. Y. Kilgore, C. Childs, and S. G. Stacy, 
with such other persons as may become associated with them, and their 
successors, be and are hereby created a body corporate and politic, with 
perpetual succesion, by the name of "The Wisconsin Teachers' Associa- 
tion," and by that name they and their successors shall ever be known, 
and shall have the power to sue and be sued, to contract and be con- 
tracted with, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in all 
courts of law and equity. 

Sec. 2. Said corporation shall have a common seal, and shall have 
power to acquire, purchase, receive, possess, hold and enjoy property, 
real and personal, and to sell and convey, rent or otherwise lawfully 
dispose of the same with pleasure: Provided, That the amount of real 
and personal property of said corporation shall not exceed the sum of 
twenty thousand dollars at any one time. 

Sec. 3. The purpose of said association shall be the mutual improve- 
ment of its members, and the promotion of popular education through- 
out the state. 

Sec. 4. Said corporation shall have the power to adopt such con- 
stitution and by-laws as they may deem proper, and make such rules 
and regulations from time to time as may be necessary to carry into 
effect the provisions of this act. 

Sec. 5. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its 
passage. 

Approved March 20, 1855. 



CONSTITUTION. 

Article 1. This Association shall be called The Wisconsin Teachers' 
Association, and shall have for its object the mutual improvement of 
its members, and the advancement of public education throughout the 
State. 

Art. 2. fAs amended Dec. 27, 1883.) The Association shall consist 
of school officers and persons engaged in teaching throughout the State; 
and the annual fee shall be, for men one dollar, and for women fifty 
cents. 

Art. 3. fAdopted Dec. 29, 1899.) The officers of this Association 




vi WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

shall be a President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, three Vice-Presidents, 
and an Executive Committee of five members, of which the President 
and Secretary of the Association shall be ex officio members. The other 
three members shall constitute a continuous body, one member to be 
elected by the Association every year for a term of three years. Pro- 
vided further, That in initiating the plan, the Association shall elect 
one member for three years, one other for two years, and a third for 
one year. 

Art. 4. The duties of the President, Vice-President, Secretary and 
Treasurer, shall be such as pertain to the same offices in similar associa- 
tions. 

Art. 5. The Executive Committee shall arrange business for the an- 
nual meetings, procure lecturers for the same, and through the Secre- 
tary of the Association, who shall be ex officio, their Secretary, conduct 
such correspondence as may be deemed advisable. 

They shall also have power to call special meetings of the Association, 
to fill all vacancies occurring in the offices, and shall make to the Asso- 
ciation an annual report of their proceedings. 

Art. 6. The annual meeting shall be held at such time and place as 
the Executive Committee may designate; and any five members who 
shall meet at a regular meeting, shall constitute a quorum for the trans- 
action of business. 

Art. 7. (Inserted July 24, 1867.) The Executive Committee shall 
have power to call an Executive Session of the Association for the pur- 
pose of considering questions of educational policy, at such a time and 
place as tliey may deenx advisable. 

Art. 8. (As amended July 22, 1868.) This constitution may be 
amended at any regular meeting of the Association, provided the pro- 
posed amendment shall have been submitted in writing at least one reg- 
ular meeting previous to its adoption. 

Resolved, That the Executive Committee be and it is hereby in- 
structed to arrange for one meeting annually of this Association until 
otherwise directed, — this meeting to be held in the last week of De- 
cember. 

Adopted July 2, 1889. 



BY-LAWS. 

(Adopted Dec. 29, 1890.) 

I. At every meeting the President shall appoint the following com- 
mittees: 

1. On Enrollment: To secure as large a membership as possible. 

Of this committee, the Secretary and Treasurer shall be ex- 
officio members. 

2. On Finance: To examine the accounts of the Secretary and 

Treasurer and report thereon just before the Committee on 
Honorary Members reports. 

3. On Resolutions: To report just before the close of the session. 

4. On Honorary Members: To report just before the committee 

on Resolutions. 

5. On Nomination of OflScers: To present nominations for the 

several offices of the Association as provided by Art. Ill of 
the Constitution, except for the office of President. For this 
office nominations shall be made by informal ballot only. 



BY-LAWS. vii 

TI. The President shall annually appoint one member to serve, for a 
term of three years on the Advisory Committee, which committee shall 
consist of three members. It shall be the duty of this committee to 
formulate educational doctrine for submission to the Association. 

III. It shall be the duty of the Secretary to provide for the publica- 
tion of the official minutes of each meeting in the State Journal of Edu- 
cation, and to secure as extended notice as possible by the press of the 
State of the proceedings of the Association. 

IV. Papers read before the Association shall be prepared for publica- 
tion and delivered to the Secretary who shall hold them subject to the 
order of the author and the editor of the official journal of the Associa- 
tion. Brief synopses, noting the salient points of the papers read, shall 
also be prepared by authors, and handed the Secretary for insertion 
in the official minutes. Synopses should be handed the Secretary be- 
fore the paper is read. 

V. (As amended 1891.) The membership fee of the Association shall 
be payable jit or before the December meeting. The Secretary shall 
publish in the December number of the Journal of Education a list of 
the members of the Association at the last preceding meeting. 

VI. The President shall annually appoint a Railway Manager who 
shall have charge of all relations of this Association with the railroad 
lines of the State. 

VII. This Association shall annually elect a representative to attend 
the meeting of the National Educational Association. 

VIII. In accepting rooms for the meetings of the Wisconsin Teachers' 
Association, the President shall secure and hold exclusive possession 
of the rooms for the general meeting during the entire session. 

IX. Robert's Rules of Order shall be authority on matters of parlia- 
mentary practice, except as herein otherwise provided. 

X. These by-laws may be amended at any regular meeting of the 
Association by a two-thirds vote. 

XI. There shall be a standing committee on legislation which shall 
consist of three members. Upon the adoption of this by-law the Presi- 
dent shall appoint one member of this committee who shall serve for 
three years; one member for two years and one member for one year. 

Thereafter at each annual meeting of the Association, one member 
shall be appointed upon this committee, who shall serve for three years. 

It shall be the duty of this committee to report to the Association 
matters for discussion relating to needed legislation; to formulate bills 
incorporating measures decided upon by the Association, to urge their 
passage by fhe legislature and to co-operate with the State Department 
of Education in securing needed legislation. 

This committee shall have power to add to its members when for 
special occasions such additions may be deemed necessary. 



PAPEES EEAD BEFORE THE WISCONSIN 
TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, 1898-99. 



KECESSITY FOE STIMULATING AIsTD UTILIZING 
INDIVIDUAL PURPOSE IN SCHOOL WORK. 

president's address: w. h. elson. 

The crowning factor in education is purpose. Sometimes we call it 
self-active interest; sometimes inner stimulus; sometimes attitude; 
sometimes ideals; sometimes aspiration. Whatever term we employ we 
mean essentially the same thing. In each case we mean the thing that 
prompts to action, that begets doing, that leads to execution. Purpose 
promotes growth; it not only promotes growth but it invites and directs 
further growth; purpose is the instrument through which the child car- 
ries on his own development; it is the agency by which he is to become 
a self-directing and self-asserting individual. It is the effective element 
in child training. So important a factor as that by which the child pro- 
motes his own growth and development, by which he is to make his 
impress on the world is worthy of highest consideration. 

All recognize the value of purpose in the adult. Every one concedes 
that only the thoughtful, purposeful man is really efficient in life. All 
agree that men ar^ valued more for what they are and for what they 
can do than for what they know. We see that efficiency exists in vary- 
ing degrees in different persons; but what is the influence of training in 
this respect? Should not the school make a direct appeal to purpose, 
stimulating and utilizing it at every turn and in all its work? 

The school has come down to us from the past. It brings with it the 
traditional practice of the daj^s when its mission was solely the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge stored in books — when absorption was the process; 
and though we may have a conviction that it should now appeal to in- 
dividual purpose in the child, yet the machinery and practice of the ' 
school handed down to us from the past is not adequate for making a 
direct appeal to this important element in child-training. To make the 
appeal direct and effective is to break up the schoolish routine and 
adapt practice to the definite end of stimulating and utilizing purpose. 
The modern primary school, under the vitalizing influence of the kin- 
dergarten, has done this in considerable measure. It has outgrown 
tradition and conventionality and adapts method to aim. Other phases 
of school work are yet to be touched by this vitalizing influence. 

In the organization and conduct of its work the school must be con- 
sciously guided by the fundamental law of growth expressed in the 
Froebelian formula, "From experience, thro' thought, to achievement"-r- 
from experiment, thro' theory, to practice. This is only saying that all 



2 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

mental life finds its beginnings in experience, a doctrine as old as 
Kant, its attitude or purpose in thought, and its realization in achieve- 
ment. It means that in child-training everything begins with exper- 
ience and ends in achievement; it means that experience furnishes the 
materials to be used in self-expression in doing; it means that the in- 
come from experience begets purpose, ideals, aspirations; and these in 
turn stand in direct relation to achievement. Experience, purpose, 
achievement, — these constitute a trinity that is at once a unity. They 
form a series of which each represents a distinct phase or part, the 
whole series being vital to complete training. The integrity and order 
of the series must at all times be preserved. Thought is double-faced 
as it were. It looks on the one hand for its materials in the direction 
of experience, and on the other it points directly and surely to achieve- 
ment for its use of these data. Thought utilizes sense-products as cap- 
ital, which purpose seizes upon and employs in achievement. The 
child's thought-capital is the result of his experience which is deter- 
mined by his environment; but in achievement the child utilizes this 
capital and becomes the master of his environment. He seeks to make 
the outer world his inner possession, and the inner world his outer ex- 
pression. All his efforts to acquire knowledge and to establish himself 
in thought are carried over into his organization and fixed there per- 
manently, if at all, by corresponding efforts at self-expansion. Once 
more: periods of growth are continuous. They do not exist in detached 
sections, lliere is not a period of acquisition, then a period of expres- 
sion. A cross-section will at all times show both processes. These 
must always be held in unity. Growth is at all times a complex process, 
involving both acquisition and expression. 

Experience, purpose, achievement, should become the working form- 
ula of the teacher. When this is done the school will not only seek to 
enrich the child's experience, but it will, with equal certainty, cultivate 
his powers of self-expression. It will regard achievement as the legiti- 
mate outcome of all mental activity. Gains in knowledge will be met 
by corresponding gains in powers of self-control and achievement. In- 
deed these will be sought as the logical outcome. The test of a school 
will be its register of gains in the behavior of its children, their growth 
in self-control, self-denial, self-direction, self-guidance on the one hand, 
and on the other their gains in skill and in power to apply new knowl- 
edge to new fields of achievement, their growth in the productive and 
creative activities. The school will recognize that all acquisitions that 
do not register themselves in conduct or achievement are worthless 
lumber, dead-weight as it were. It will recognize in its actual work the 
well-known fact that the inleading processes have their correlative in 
outleading processes. It will see to it that all income from the senses 
brings with it the tendency to new and better expression in conduct or 
work. It will know that mere information-gathering is fruitless: that 
the child is to learn to use his powers, and in this use he is to become 
purposeful and efficient; that mere knowledge is worthless except as 
it becomes a means to achievement in life-utterance. 

The nineteenth century school leads the child to information; it 
leads him to repeat information; it stimulates only or chiefly the gath- 
ering^n process; it fosters the spirit of self-accumulation; it breeds 
selfishness. On the contrary the twentieth century school, with a 
clearer insight and a fuller recognition of the fundamental law of 
growth, will lead the child to use his acquisitions in new fields of en- 
deavor; it will lead him to put forth, to express, to achieve by doing; 
it will bless him with the joy of achievement; it will breed consecra- 
tion, devotion, benevolence in a helpful service to others; from a 
tendency to self-preservation it will lead him into a life of self-asser- 
tion; from a tendency to self-accumulation it will lead him into chan- 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99, 3 

nels of allruism. The nineteenth century school lays more stress on 
the inleading currents than on the outleading currents; more on the 
sensory system than on the motor system; more on the impressive ac- 
tivities than on the expressive activities; more on the absorbing 
process and on the receptive attitude than on the productive and cre- 
ative tendencies; more on the acquisition of knowledge than on the use 
of it. The twentieth century school will adjust and equalize the em- 
phasis; it will concern itself with what the child knows that he can 
use, with what he can do, with what he measures in terms of life-effi- 
oiency; it will enquire what power he has to solve new problems, to ad- 
just means to end, to measure action to possible result. 

Two signrficant facts are apparent in the modern movement in educa- 
tion. First, the growing tendency and effort to base all school work on 
the child's experience and to enlarge and enrich this experience. Sec- 
ond, the growing tendency to provide for the completion of mental acts 
in actual achievement. The development of the arts and sciences has 
put into active service in the conditions of modern living a wealth of 
material which it is the business of the school to utilize in cultivating 
a spirit of inquiry and investigation, and a habit of relating all knowl- 
edge to practical life-purposes. The larger use of observation and ex- 
periment which now forms a part of the daily work of all schools calls 
for the larger use of the hand in constructive doing. Experience must 
always look to achievement for its justification. Progress in educa- 
tional practice is measured not by advancement in one or the other of 
these lines but in their close correlation in purpose. The child is to 
gain knowledge at first hand from personal experience but he is also 
to develop power to use knowledge thus gained. "What schools in gen- 
eral most need is the vitalizing touch that purpose gives. When ob- 
servation and experiment beget in the child the habit of relating all 
new income to new fields of achievement then purpose has been stimu- 
lated and proper correlation has been made between acquisition and 
expression, between thought and action. If half the time and energy 
spent within the past few years in attempting to make forced and me- 
chanical correlations between one thought-subject and another and in 
aittempting to determine the proper and exact number of correlating 
centers — whether there should be one, or three, or five — had been spent 
in expanding the field of reactive conduct, and providing for a close 
correlation between seeing and doing, between observing and express- 
ing, fewer children would have gone to wreck in the meantime and the 
cause of education would have been greatly helped. This is said with 
a full measure of appreciation of the rich contribution which the study 
of correlation in the past few years has brought to the elementary 
school. 

In an indistinct and imperfec/t way the school has long known that 
action tends to reaction, that impression is clinched by expression, that 
activity of the sensory system is followed by activity of the motor 
system, yet in practice it has gone on, basing its work on a psychology 
that begins in "cognition and ends in memory," gathering and repeat- 
ing information, and trusting to Providence to develop purpose in chil- 
dren in unrelated fields of exercise of the motor activities. It has gone 
on in the good old way, seeming to believe that the voice which ex- 
presses ideas in words is adequate to meet the requirements of all-sided 
training, ignoring the hand which expresses ideas in things. 

It is here that modern phychology is helping the school to see the 
immense value of the hand as a factor in mental development. It has 
pointed out the value of the hand as an aid to thinking in the little 
child before language comes to his relief, and the further fact that 
it supplements and complements the voice in its further service. It 
has emphasized enormously the motor power as a factor in mental de- 



4 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

velopment. It regards the child as a dynamic factor in his own train- 
ing, an active doer of things. It considers hand-training to mean the 
adoption of the theory of the development of the mind through the 
influence of the eye and hand. Modern psychology believes that the 
child should live himself into knowledge through doing in which the 
joy of achievement is a constant stimulus to his growing sense of power 
and usefulness in the world. It believes that knowledge becomes per- 
manent, living possessions only when acquired and used through ra- 
tional doing in which purpose is the constant stimulus. All schools 
from the kindergarten to the university and including these need the 
gospel of hand-training, of measuring knowledge to its practical uses, 
of unifying thought and aotion in purpose. 

The kindergarten is the highest type of the rational school, provid- 
ing as it does for the exercise in knowledge-getting followed imme- 
diately by exercises having for their aim the application of the knowl- 
edge thus gained to the practical affairs of life in constructive work, 
in making useful articles involving the previously-gained knowledge. 
Thus the "gift-lessons" so-called in the kindergarten, designed to give 
certain facts of form, color, or number are followed by "occupation" 
lessons designed to apply to constructive work fpr life-purposes the 
facts developed in the gift work. The daily work in the kindergarten 
reveals both phases of activity. Improvements in the modern primary 
school mean nothing more than the vitalizing influence of applying 
the common-sense methods of hand-training on the plan of the kinder- 
garten to these schools, thus leading children to acquisition through 
doing, through using knowledge rather than as a lifeless and joyless 
repetition of information. 

Thought and action are unified in purpose. The prevailing w^eak- 
ness in school work is an arrangement which divorces expression from 
its sources in thought or which ignores all forms of expression except 
the voice. This is the crowning weakness in the so-called teaching of 
English about which so much is said and so little is accomplished. 
Close correlation must be made between acquisition and expression, 
between sense-activity and motor-activity, between knowing and doing, 
between seeing and adapting, between observing and applying, between 
jnvesitigating and using the results therefrom in common-sense, prac- 
tical life uses, in all of which purpose is the unifying and connecting 
element. 

EECOMMENDATIOXS, 

This association has grown to such large proportions as to justify 
the belief that railways should offer some concessions to its members, 
such as are offered other organizations of like nature, other than the 
usual rate made at this season of the year to the general public in their 
individual capacity. Indeed, in the face of the current practice of rail- 
ways of granting one-fare and less rates to other meetings that promise 
smaller attendance and membership than this association, anything less 
than a one-fare rate would seem a discrimination against teachers. 

In the brief time allotted to the details of preparation for this meet- 
ing an attempt was made to organize the states of I6wa, Minnesota, 
Illinois and Wisconsin into a joint application to the Western Passen- 
ger Association for a uniform rate of one fare for the round trip 
throughout its territory, but time and vigorous effort are both required 
to bring about such a result. I believe this matter should be carried 
to a successful issue. Railway people, while having an eye to the busi- 
ness outcome of things, are nevertheless obliging and accommodating 
"When approached in the proper way. There is a mutual point involved. 
The membership of this association would be considerably Increased 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 5 

by such a rate; railroads would handle more people and make more 
dollars. The association would have a larger attendance and hence 
do more good. I suggest the wisdom of putting this matter into the 
hands of a special committee, to co-operate df thought best, with similar 
committees from other state associations. 

The papers and proceedings of this association are published for the 
benefit of its members. Doubtless the value of the publication would 
be enhanced and the expense of publication reduced by omitting un- 
important and the less helpful features of the proceedings. It is sug- 
gested that a committee on publication would be a practical way of 
meeting this difficulty. 



WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



THE COURSES OF OUR ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. 

PREPARED AND READ BEFORE THE ASSOCIATION BY PRESIDENT CHARLES 
KENDALL ADAMS OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 

The Committee to whom this question was referred, one year ago, beg 
leave to present the following report.* 

It has been the opinion of the Committee that this subject should be 
Studied in the broadest way practicable, and that to that end its scope 
ought to include not only a study of the present condition of our own 
Grammar Schools, but also the courses of study in other states and 
countries, and the results of efforts that have already been made In 
the direction of modification by some of the more prominent schools 
in this country. Accordingly four lines of Investigation have been un- 
dertaken: 

1. To ascertain the courses of study pursued in the Grammar Schools 
of "Wisconsin. This has been done by directing more than a hundred 
letters of inquiry to the more prominent and representative schools 
of the state for the purpose of obtaining the needed information. 

2. For the purpose of ascertaining the general characteristics of the 
schools in other states than our own. and comparing them with Wis- 
consin, letters of inquiry were addressed to the Departments of Edu- 
cation in Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and 
Michigan. In answer to these inquiries we have received not only 
the State Reports and State Manuals, but also many reports and courses 
of study from prominent schools in other states. 

3. To be able to compare our courses with those of the most care- 
fully organized school programmes of Europe, letters of inquiry were 
sent to the Ministers of Public Instruction in Prussia, France, Switzer- 
land, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Russia, and 
courteous and prompt answers have been received from all of these 
countries. 

4. For the purpose of ascertaining how many schools in the United 
States have recently attempted to modify the grade school courses by 
the introduction of Latin, German, geometry, or algebra, numerous 
letters have been written and answers have been received, not only 
explaining the courses, but also indicating the impressions of the school 
authorities in regard to the value and influence of such courses upon 
the schools. 

We have then, first, to compare our schools with those of the neigh- 
boring states; secondly, to compare them with foreign schools of the 

*Thp roimuittt'p flosiros to acknowlodsf its fri'<^!it ohlijintions to tlip ni.Tuy 
persons who. in ,ins\ver t(j its inquirios, have fontrilmted information, without 
which tliis Ueport would liave liad little value. In a very speeial way the 
romniittee would ackuowleilge indebtedness to Mr. Hill. Secretary of the State 
Board of Kducation in Massachusetts, for docunii-nts that have hu«>n freel.v used; 
and also to Mr. A. W. Tressler. Superintendin}; rriiicipal of ST-hooIs at Ripon, 
Wis., who jjenerously jilaced at the disposal of the Connnittee. much informa- 
tion collected liy hini as one of the subsidiary coinniittee on I^atiii of the Com- 
mittee of Fifteen appointed liy the American riiilolofrical Association. For 
tabulating the Charts accompan.viufr the Report the Committee acknowledges 
Its indebtedness to Dr. I'rdahl. Instructor in Kconomics and Statistiea iu the 
I'luversity of Wisconsin. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 7 

same grade; and, thirdly, to ascertain, as far as is practicable, the re- 
sults of such efforts towards improvement as have already been made. 

While the amount of material thus accumulated has, from one point 
of view, been a source of embarrassment, it has, nevertheless, yielded 
to our efforts at classification, and thus, by eliminating individual pecu- 
liarities, we have been able to select what seem to be typical or repre- 
sentative programmes of instruction for comparison. 

Accompanying the report are twelve charts which show the courses 
of studies of Grammar grade in several of the nations of Europe, 
with some of the typical or representative courses in the United States. 

At the very outset it should be said that the members of your Com- 
mittee are unanimous in the opinion that this question should be in- 
vestigated and presented with sole reference to the welfare of the pu- 
pils in the grade schools, and with no reference to the comparatively 
small number of those pupils who go into the High Schools, or the 
still smaller number who go to the Colleges and the University. We 
are unanimously of the opinion that it is the business of the educa- 
tional authorities, whether general or local, to provide the best pos- 
sible education for pupils of Grammar School grade; that it is the 
unquestionable duty of the High Schools to adapt their work to what 
has already been done in the Grammar grades, and equally the duty 
of the University to adapt its courses to what has already been done 
in the High Schools. While schools of all grades should be formed and 
modified by public opinion, and while the educational ideas entertained 
in the High Schools and the University are part of public opinion, we 
wish it to be distinctly understood that, in our opinion, each grade 
should be determined and shaped by what has gone before, rather than 
by what is to come after. 

In view of this belief, it seems the natural method of procedure to 
inquire, at the very outset, as to whether it is possible to determine 
in advance the general object that should be sought in the schools 
of grammar grade. Pupils, when they complete the eighth grade, aver- 
age about fourteen years of age. A majority of them never go any 
farther; and it is this majority that is to constitute the majority of 
American voters. The matter needs only to be stated in this way to 
show how enormous is the importance of the question as to the kind 
of education this majority should have. 

At one point we ought to guard against misunderstanding. This 
majority is not a fixed number. It is constantly being recruited from 
those who intended to be a part of that select minority who go farther, 
and is, on the other hand, as constantly being diminished by the 
revelation of unexpected possibilities of going forward into the upper 
grades? The ideal course will, therefore, be strong enough for those 
that are to go on, and not too strong for those who are to end their 
schooling with the eighth grade. 

Since the only justification of schools of any grade, supported by the 
public, is the benefit the public derives from the improved condition 
of the pupils in consequence of the advantages they have received, it 
is pertinent to ask: What does the public really want of a boy or girl 
at the age of fourteen? How can the public best be repaid for the 
time, trouble, and taxation put into the schools? An answer to these 
questions is fundamental to our inquiry. 

The quesfion may be put in another way by asking what are the 
acquirements and peculiarities which, carried on into active and mature 
life, contribute most to success and usefulness? 

Now, in answer to this question, we think it can hardly be main- 
tained that such a measure of usefulness and success depends imme- 
diately and directly upon the acquisition of any given amount of knowl- 
edge on any specified selection of subjects whatever. This is made 



8 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

apparent by the fact that an enormous percentage of what is learned 
in school is speedily forgotten in later life, even by the most success- 
ful men and women. Take a group of one hundred of the most suc- 
cessful men and women in Milwaukee, and how many of them remem- 
ber how to extract the cube-root, or to find the greatest common di- 
visor of seven or eight numbers? How many remember the constituent 
elements of air and water, and the proportions of those elements? 
How many could answer one in a score of the questions they learned 
to answer when they were studying in the grammar schools? If all of 
these successful business men were arrayed in a class and sent to the 
blackboard, and nine-tenths of them should fail to pass an examination, 
how many would think the worse of them? 

What then is it that ensures success in education? The answer is 
not difficult. It is not that kind of schooling which simply fills us 
with facts, but that which develops within us certain qualities and 
characteristics. It is not enough to take food into the stomach, for 
it Is never useful until it is disintegrated and digested and transferred 
into the blood, the brain, the muscles, and the spine. The processes 
of education are analogous to those of building up and strengthening 
the body. As in the one case, it is only what is digested that is used; 
so in the other, that only is of really essential service which is con- 
verted into certain habits and methods of thought and feeling and 
action. If these are secured, it hardly matters if nine-tenths of the 
facts learned in school are forgotten. Let us plant ourselves firmly 
on the ground that there are a few fundamental and elemental condi- 
tions of general success in life. These are a habit of discriminating 
observation; the possession of the inductive faculty, i. e.. the faculty 
of drawing correct inferences; that power of contingent reasoning 
which we call good judgment; the ethical ability to discriminate cor- 
rectly and clearly between right and wrong; and that firm and serene 
force of conscience and character which may be relied upon to adopt 
that which is right, and reject that which is wrong. Whatever may 
be a pupil's text-book deficiencies, if there be any one who has these 
qualities and charateristics, all other things shall be added unto him. 
If there be any one who has 7wt these characteristics, in at least con- 
siderable measure, his text-book knowledge, be it ever so perfect and 
ever so comprehensive, will be of little value in after life. And here 
lies the reason why such men as Washington and Lincoln, and so 
many of tlie modern successful captains of industry have achieved 
such triumphant success after so little school-room and text-book edu- 
cation. 

If these positions are correct, it follows of absolute necessity that 
the education most needed is that which best develops these indispensa- 
ble qualities. It is not so much what the pupil knows that is to lead 
him to success, as it is what he perceives, what he desires, what he 
longs for, what he approves, and what he is determined to accomplish. 
Barring the technical knowledge necessary in particular vocations, these 
are the principles by which the success of every educational system 
must finally be judged. 

It follows as an inevitable consequence that in every study the aim 
of the teacher should be so to awaken the mind of the pupil as to 
develop one or all of these qualities. It was precisely the ability to 
do this in very large measure that made consummate teachers of such 
men as Arnold, Agassiz, Pestalozzi, and Hopkins. Neither of these 
men took the highest rank in any specialty of knowledge, but it may 
probably be said that no pupil ever came under the instruction of any 
of them without having his ideas enlarged, his perceptions quickened, 
his reasoning powers strengthened, his purposes enlightened, and his 
determinations reinforced and satisfied. These results, moreover, fol- 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 9 

lowed almost regardless of the subjects taught, or of the purpose of 
the pupil in after life. Pestalozzl was never a teacher till he was more 
than fifty years of age, and of no single subject was he in any sense 
a master, excepting of that superlative gift of awakening an enthusi- 
astic interest in any subject, no matter however trifling, to which he 
might give his attention. He said of himself that he had "an unrivaled 
incapacity for governing;" and yet he could take a bit of wood from 
the floor, a piece of chalk from the desk, or a piece of writing paper 
from the table, and talk about it and ask questions about it in such 
a way as to put even the dullest mind on the alert," and fill it with 
new and expanding ideas and aspirations. Two conclusions inevitably 
follow. The first is that great results are more dependent upon the 
method of teaching than upon what is taught. Good teachers, if pos- 
sible, great teachers are, after all, the principal thing. Let it be un- 
derstood once for all, that in our opinion no course of study can atone 
for inca4)aoity in the teacher's chair. Even a handsome and costly 
'schoolhouse, desirable as it may be in itself, may be a curse; liter- 
ally a curse if its erection and care prove such a burden as to make the 
employment of the best obtainable teachers impossible. No good school 
can ever be the best until the controlling authorities are determined, 
at whatever cost, to secure the best available teachers in all the po- 
sitions. The other consequence is that whether good teachers or bad 
ones are employed, the best results can only be secured when those 
courses of study are pursued which are best adapted to the develop- 
ment of the qualities and characteristics necessary to success. And 
this brings us quite up to the question in hand: Are the courses of 
study in the Grammar Schools of this state well adapted to develop 
these qualities and characteristics? Or should they be shortened? Or 
should they be enriched and improved? 



In order that the Committee might be able not only to discuss the 
matter on rational grounds, but also to compare our system with others, 
pains have been taken, as we have already stated, to have at hand ample 
means of comparison. 

First of all, in examining this material, we are met with some em- 
barrassment in the fact that each of our cities and towns has a sys- 
tem of its own. The condition in "Wisconsin is not very different in 
this respect from that in Massachusetts, in regard to which Secretary 
Hill writes the Committee: "Inasmuch as we have 353 local school 
boards for as many towns and cities, there may be said to be 353 
different courses of instruction for our public schools." But while it 
is true that the same local freedom exists in Wisconsin as in Massa- 
chusetts, it is also correct to say that an inspection of the courses in 
about 100 representative Wisconsin schools reveals, within certain lim- 
its, a substantial uniformity. 

What we are forced to do, therefore, is to take a course which, bar- 
ring minor and comparatively unimportant details, will fairly repre- 
sent the Grammar Schools of Wisconsin, and then try to ascertain 
whether it is, or it is not, adapted to the completest accomplishment of 
the ends we think desirable. It ought perhaps to be remarked in pass- 
ing, that, notwithstanding some uniformity, the differences in differ- 
ent schools are very striking, more striking indeed, than the differ- 
ences in European schools of the same grade. 

We find, for example, it is general, though not universal, to devote 
five lessons a week for nearly eight years to arithmetic. In not a few 
of the schools the same time is given to geography. Five lessons a 
week are generally given to language study, such study being for the 



10 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

most part confined to the art of expression in English, and to English 
grammar. In a few of the schools, from two to three hours are given 
to history, or to history and sociology during two or three of the later 
grades. With these are joined, in varying amounts, reading, writing, 
spelling, music and drawing, and in a few cases manual training. Be- 
sides these, there are two or three hours (sometimes two and sometimes 
three) of science, which is meant to include natural history and ele- 
mentary physics and chemistry. The time of the individual lessons 
varies from ten minutes to forty, and the number of lessons per week 
from twenty to fifty. In Ashland, for example, the number is as high 
as fifty-five during the first and second years; forty during the third, 
fourth, fifth, and sixth, and thirty-three during the seventh and eighth. 
In many of the others, the number is very much less. 

If all the studies as they are now given are to be retained, it is 
needless to discuss the question whether the time of such a course can 
be shortened to less than eight grades. If the question we are called 
upon to consider means that we shall ask and answer the question 
as to whether all the studies, as they are now given, can be compressed 
into less than eight years, the answer must be in the negative. But 
if, on ithe other hand, it was intended that the Committee should in- 
quire whether in the light of correct pedagogical principles, or of ex- 
perience elsewhere, the programme can be so modified as to yield as 
good, or better results in a shorter time, the question assumes a very 
different aspect. While the Committee will not undertake to answer 
this question categorically, it is a unit in thinking that good may be 
subserved by a comparison of the courses in this State with those in 
other States, and by an inquiry as to whether the courses here in use 
are well adapted to serve the objects of education indicated in the be- 
ginning of this paper. 

Let us for a moment discuss these two questions. In the first place, 
we find that the courses in this state do not show that they differ 
very radically and significantly from those of the states adjacent to 
us. A careful study of typical courses in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, 
Iowa, and Minnesota, reveals about the same methods and tendencies 
that prevail in Wisconsin. In Indiana, the state central board pre- 
scribes a uniform course for all the grade schools, as well as all high 
schools. But the grammar school course, while differing in some im- 
portant particulars from the typical Wisconsin course, differs in details, 
rather than in characteristics that may be regarded as fundamental. 
The same is found to be in the main true when we compare the courses 
in Wisconsin schools with those prevailing in Massachusetts. It is but 
just to conclude, therefore, that the courses now generally in use in 
this state do not differ in fundamental characteristics from what may 
perhaps be called the common usages in the other states. While in the 
Wisconsin high schools the fully organized classical course is much less 
frequently found than in most, if not all, the other states still this 
peculiarity does not extend down into the grammar grades, and there- 
fore it hardly forms an exception to our general statement. 

II. 

When we come to a comparison with the usages in foreign countries, 
the case is far different. As already intimated, the committee has pro- 
cured the latest schemes of study from oflScial sources in nearly all 
the countries of Continental Europe. Great Britain was not included, 
because no general system of primary education can be said there to 
exist. All is yet practically in the hands of private schools, each of 
which does practically as it pleases. But on the Continent one strik- 
ing characteristic is everywhere observable. We have already inti- 



I»APERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. H 

mated that there is very considerable uniformity between the courses 
adopted for the schools in the several American states. But in Europe 
the similarity is even more marked. France, for example, learned that 
she was beaten at Gravelotte and Sedan by the German school system; 
and an examination of the courses provided for the French schools in 
1899 shows that the similarities of the courses in France and Prussia 
are greater than the similarities of the courses in Wisconsin and In- 
diana; greater indeed than those of the programmes in Milwaukee and 
Superior. The same general characteristics have been revealed by an 
inspection of the official courses adopted in Belgium, the Netherlands, 
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. With minor differences, they have at 
length all come to be modelled substantially on the Prussian system, 
which first spread over the other German states, and then over the 
rest of Continental Europe. 

Now it is pertinent to inquire as to the fundamental difference be- 
tween what may be called the American system and the European sys- 
tem. The first and most marked difference to be noted is in the vastly 
greater amount of time given in Europe to linguistic studies. Bearing 
in mind the great fact that in all European schools the courses are 
essentially the same, it will be enough to quote from one or two of the 
official programmes. For example, take the classical or gymnasium 
programme in the Netherlands. Before the pupils nave arrived at the 
average age of fourteen, they have had the equivalent of two and one- 
third hours per week of Dutch for five years ; the same amount of time 
has been given to French; three hours to English for three years; in 
German three hours per week for three years; in Latin six hours per 
week for tfour years, and eight hours for two years; and in Greek, five 
hours per week for five years. Thus we have a linguistic programme 
which includes instruction in Dutch, German, French, English, Latin 
and Greek, and in no one of them less than three hours a week for 
three years. The amount of history is three hours a week for four 
years, while the geography has only three lessons a week for two years, 
and the arithmetic about the same. 

Now let us turn to a somewhat fuller consideration, not of the Clas- 
sical Course, but of the Modern Course of instruction in France. The 
French courses are chosen for more exact comparison, not because they 
are very different from those of the other countries of Continental 
Europe, but because they have been recently formed after a most care- 
ful study by the French authorities, of the most successful systems 
In Europe. The system is the outcome of a national consciousness 
aroused after the terrible disasters of 1870-71, that education of the 
most fruitful and thorough nature possible, and in all its grades, would 
alone put the country on a par with its great rival on the other side 
of the Rhine. There is something strikingly analogous in this revival 
with that which took place in Germany after 1806 through the appeals 
of Fichte and the legislative and administrative work of von Stein and 
Wilhelm von Humboldt. The French courses, adopted some twenty 
years ago, have been slightly modified from time to time, the latest 
modification having been adopted August 6, 1898. The courses here de- 
scribed are taken from the official programme. As will immediately 
be seen, they have nothing to do with the classical programme, nor 
with the technical nor trade schools with which France abounds. 

It is important at the very outset to note that elementary instruc- 
tion is divrded into two groups: "Modern Elementary Instruction," 
and "Classical Elementary Instruction." These divisions correspond 
roughly with the Gymnasien and the Real Schulen in Germany, but with 
the important difference that while in the Real Schulen of Germany 
Latin forms an important part of the course, in the corresponding pro- 
gramme in France, Latin is altogether excluded. As the Modern Ele- 



12 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

mentary course in France corresponds very nearly with the non-classical 
courses in America below the High Schools, it is possible to compare 
them in detail year by year. Time will not permit such a compari- 
son in perfect fullness; but enough may be presented to show the most 
important cfifferences between the French schools and the American. 
The comparison is made, be it remembered, not with the French Classic- 
al Schools, which may be supposed to provide for the elite of French 
youth but with the modern, or what would perhaps be regarded as the 
weaker course. 

The French system is arranged in three divisions: The "elementary 
division," the "grammar division," and the "higher or superior divi- 
sion." The first of these — a three years' course — is organized for pu- 
pils from eight to eleven years of age; the second, or grammar divi- 
sion, for pupils from eleven to fourteen; the higher division, for pupils 
from fourteen to seventeen. From this it will be seen that the first 
two divisions correspond with general precision to the grade of gram- 
mar schools in America from the third to the eighth grades inclusive; 
the French "ecole primaire," or primary school, to our kindergarten 
and the first and second grades. 

Now having thus prepared the way, let us advance to a comparison 
of the courses of study. ' The programme in the elementary division 
can be very speedily disposed of. There are nine and a half hours 
per week in the study of the French language during the first year, 
and nine hours per week during the second and third. In modern lan- 
guages (German or English), as may be elected four hours per week 
for three years. To history one and a half hours per week for three 
years; to geography one and a half hours per week during the en- 
tire period : to science, including arithmetic and the study of nature, 
two and a half hours per week during the first year, and three hours 
during the second and third. To design, or drawing, one hour a week 
during the three years. Interspersed with these, making twenty hours 
per week, come music and physical training and such other light ex- 
ercises as reading and spelling. 

To an American observer, the most striking peculiarity of this course 
of three years is the fact that considerably more than one-half (or, 
to be exact, twenty-seven fortieths) of the pupil's time is devoted to 
the study of language; and but a little less than one-half- (exactly 
nineteen fortieths ) is given to the French language. Another surprise 
to the American teacher is the fact that only two and a half hours are 
given to science, including arithmetic, during the first year, and only 
three hours during the second and third years. And when we look at 
the analysis of the courses, as they are given, we find that these hours 
are about equally divided between arithmetic and the study of nature, 
or, as the French has it: ''CalcuV and "Lecon de Choses." 

The French, then, give one and a half hours a week to arithmetic, 
while the Americans give two and a half or more; the Americans give 
from three to five lessons a week to geography, while the French give 
one and a half. The French give thirteen and a half hours to language, 
while the Americans give only five, exclusively to English. 

Now let us turn to the second, or what is termed the Grammar Divi- 
sion, which takes pupils who have completed the Elementary Division 

Note.— It is prob.ibly universally concedert that the French are the greatest 
modern masters of a pure literary style; and it has often been a niysterv how 
the art of expression in prose has reached sncli perfection. The' secret (or 
rather the explanation, for it is no secrett is undonbtedlv found in the pains- 
taking training given to this subject in the schools. The French official pro- 
gramme gives in minute detail what is to be done in each of the classes in all 
the public schools. A more elaborate account of the training French pupils 
receive was given by liniiictictr in the Atlantic Monthly for Octob'^r, 1897, on 
'•The French Mastery of Style." 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 13 

at an average age of eleven, and carries them on to the end of the 
Middle or Orammar Division at the average of fourteen — in other 
words, the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of our Grammar School 
course. 

French in the French schools is now for pupils of eleven to twelve 
reduced from nine and a half to six hours a week, while modern lan- 
guage, German or English, whichever was previously taken, is increased 
from four hours to six. History and geography together are given 
three hours; arithmetic is now reduced to one hour; zoology is given 
one; caligraphy (or writing) one; and drawing three. In the next 
year French is kept at six hours per week; while modern languages 
are increased to eight, four being given to German, and four to Eng- 
lish. History now has two hours; geography, one; arithmetic, one; 
geology and botany, one; and drawing, or design, three. Passing to 
the last year of the grammar grade, we find that French is reduced to 
five hours, while eight hours are given to other modern languages; 
four each to any two of English, German, Spanish, Italian, or Russian. 
During the same year we find history, two; instruction in morals, one; 
in mathematics, three; drawing, or design, three. 

Thus summing up, we find that during the whole of this three years 
there is the same predominance of linguistic studies as we found in 
the elementary grades. While the pupil is advancing from eleven to 
fourteen he is required to take twenty-one hours per week during the 
first year, and of these, twelve are devoted to language; and during the 
second and third years, twenty-two hours, of which fourteen during 
the second year must be given to language, and thirteen during the 
third year. Thus it appears that there is not a single year during the 
period of French secondary education when less than half of all the 
time of the pupil is given to linguistic study. If this were in the 
classical schools, or courses, it would not perhaps be so surprising. 
But to realize the full force of its significance we must remember that 
this is not the course intended to lead to the universities, but the course 
designed for practical business men in a republic where the state is 
ruled by public opinion. 

Now, for the purpose of getting at the results of this strange neglect 
of arithmetic and geography, let us inquire as to what the French pu- 
pils of fourteen, just ready to enter the high school, appear to know. 
What has this training resulted in? We can only judge by an inspec- 
tion of the studies taken during the last year of the grammar grade, 
as revealed in the official programmes. 

In language we find prescribed for them such robust topics as "His- 
torical Grammar;" "Etymological Theories;" "Principal Laws which 
have Governed the Formation of the French Language;" "Epochs in the 
History of the Language;" "Development of the French Verb;" "Study 
of French Texts of the Middle Ages;" "Laws of French Verse;" "Crit- 
ical Study of French Authors;" "Practice in the Writing of Letters;" 
^'Narrations;" "The Develoment of a Moral Idea;" "Analysis of Various 
Authors Read." Besides these, there is prescribed a large amount of 
critical and expository reading in French authors, among whom are 
named Corneille, Racine, Moliere, La Fontaine, and Voltaire. Besides 
all this, it is interesting to note that the pupils are required to read 
in French and analyze considerable portions of the works of such for- 
eign authors as Xenophon, Sallust, Cervantes, Tasso, and the works 
of the mediaeval French authors; Villehardoin, Joinville, and Comines. 

Turning to modern languages other than French we find that the 
pupils, having already read several of the standard German and Eng- 
lish authors, are now devoting a large part of their time to oral and 
written themes (or essays) in German and English, with readings la 
the modern German and English drama. Those who have elected Ital- 



14 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

ian, or Spanish, or Russian, in place of English, are now carriyng ou 
their work in a similar manner. 

But how in regard to the poor mathematics? We find that all but 
the higher arithmetic has been completed, and geometry has 
been studied for a year. Looking forward into the next pe- 
riod, we find that in the high school the hours for mathematics 
are increased to four per week; in the first year arithmetic is com- 
pleted, geometry is carried on, and algebra is begun. In the second 
and third years algebra, spherical geometry, trigonometry and descrip- 
tive geometry are completed. From all this one's breath is almost 
taken away to find that in some mysterious way the French boy at six- 
teen or seventeen has learned more mathematics than the American boy 
of the same age though he has devoted scarcely more than one-half the 
time to it. Certain it is that the American boy of sixteen or seven- 
teen commonly knows nothing of trigonometry, or analytical geometry, 
both of which the French boy has taken as a regular part of his course. 

How is it in geography? When the pupil is eight, one and a half 
hours are given to geography for the purpose of making him inter- 
ested ("by descriptions and examples drawn as much as possible from 
the region in which the pupil lives") in the meaning of the principal 
geographical terms. Globes and mural maps are used for the purpose 
of showing the positions of oceans and continents and especially the 
general configuration of Europe and France. During the next year, 
also, three lessons are given every two weeks. The title of the course 
is "Elementary Geography of the Five Grand Divisions of the Earth." 
The subjects are: "Forms, limits and location of the large gulfs and 
seas, the great ranges of mountains, the large rivers and lakes, the 
principal deserts, the ranges of heat and cold, the most remarkable 
plants and animals, the principal nations and their capitals, great 
commercial ports, and the most important cities." Passing from the 
elementary to the grammar division, the first year is devoted exclu- 
sively to what is called "the elementary geography of France." This 
embraces: "General configuration and dimensions, seas and coasts, 
gulfs, peninsulas, capes, isles, dunes, swamps, salt marshes, lagoons 
and principal parts." To these are added: "Elevations of the soil, 
chains of mountains, masses, plains, valleys, altitudes, perpetual snow 
and glaciers, flowing waters and basins, rivers and their chief affluents, 
lakes, regions of the coasts." Then come: "Canals, railroads, and 
other important lines of communication; the old provinces, departments 
and chief places, as well as the most important cities." A patriotic- 
impulse is given to the pupil by the topic: "Frontiers and territorial 
losses of France in 1871." In the next year when the pupil is from 
twelve to thirteen, one hour a week is given to the subject. During the 
first trimester, under the head of General Geography, the topics are, 
"the sea: its currents, its depths; the polar regions; the atmosphere, 
winds, monsoons, cyclones: rain and the circulation of waters: climates 
and vegetation: continents, mountains in different parts of the globe; 
elementary notions of the different human races; civilized life and sav- 
age life." In the second trimester (not to go into too much detail) a 
more careful study of Europe is pursued, and in the third a similar 
study of America. In the following year, the last in the grammar school, 
when the pupils average fourteen, one hour a week is devoted to the 
geography of Africa, Asia, and Oceanica, including "general configura- 
tion, superficial areas, archipelagoes, large islands, general character- 
istics of the soil, the rivers, lakes, climates, fauna and flora, principal 
states and European possessions, languages, religions, great historical 
souvenirs, commerce, principal ports and routes of communication." 
The geography of the grammar school is concluded by a general re- 
view in which the larger states of the five quarters of the globe are 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 15 

compared with each other, in their various relations and methods of 
Intercommunication. 

This program for the study of geography has been given in perhaps 
somewhat wearisome detail in order to show with particularity what 
the French accomplish in considerably less than half the time that is 
generally given to geography in America. In many of the American 
schools, commonly taking high rank in public esteem, as many as five 
lessons a week in geography are given for the period of from six to 
eight years. In not a single one of the European courses of study that 
have come to us has the subject of geography been given more than one 
and a half hours a week for six years. In the grammar schools of Wis- 
consin, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Massachusetts the time devoted 
to geography is seldom less than three times as much as is given to 
the subject in the schools of France, or in fact, in the schools of any of 
the nations of continental Europe. And yet a knowledge of geography 
must be cmite as important to a European as to an American. 

Of history it is perhaps enough to say that three hours are given 
every two weeks during the first two years; two hours a week for three 
years; and five hours a week for the last year of the grammar course, 
two hours being given to the history of civilization and the history or 
art. In what school of grammar grade in America has it been thought 
worth the while to give a course in "the history of civilization and the 
history of art?" 

There is one other subject which seems to us especially worthy of no- 
tice, and therefore take the liberty of giving it in full, translating it 
literally from the French program. It shows the way in which the 
French authorities have attempted to meet the difficult and most im- 
portant problem of instruction in what may be called practical moral- 
ity. One hour a week throughout the final year of the grammar school 
course is given to this subject, and it seems to us worthy of most 
thoughtful consideration. 

The following is the program: 

Preliminary Ideas: First indications of conscience. 

Domestic Duties: Duties of children to their parents; Duties of par- 
ents to their children ; Duties of brothers and sisters. 

Social Duties: Respect for human life; respect for honor and repu- 
tation; outrages, calumnies, slander; condemnation of accusations and 
envy; respect for property; theft and fraud under all their forms; sa- 
cred character of promises and contracts; equity, acknowledgments, 
benevolence, charity, obligations to assist one's fellow men in peril, 
fidelity, sacrifice; duties of friendship; respect for old age; the high- 
est requirements of morality (des superiorites morales). 

Duties in regard to animals. 

Reciprocal Duties of masters and servants. 

Civic Duties: Country and patriotism, obedience to the laws, respect 
for magistrates, imposts, the military service, the vote. 

Personal Duties: Duties of personal preservation and care; suicide, 
principal forms of respect for oneself — temperance, prudence, courage, 
respect for the truth, sincerity with one's self (vis a vis de sol 
mene) ; duty of cultivating and developing all our faculties, work, its 
necessity and its moral infiuence; religious duties and corresponding 
rights. 

For lack of time it is impossible to follow out in a similar manner 
the other subjects taught in the French course; but enough has been 
given to show the distinctive differences between what may be called 
the European program in schools of grammar grade and the typical 
American program of the same grade. 

And now, in surveying the results of our investigations, only a few 
words need be spoken in conclusion. The French course, which, as we 



16 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

have already said, is simply the typical European course, differs from 
the typical American course in several important particulars. 

1. In the first place it devotes vastly more time to severe linguistic 
studies, and much less time to studies in mathematics and geography. 
The French boy at fourteen has learned as much mathematics and geog- 
raphy as the American boy, and has in addition a fair reading knowl- 
edge of two foreign languages, besides a much better knowledge of his- 
tory. In the second place, the European system deals more with what 
may be called the substantial elements of education, and much less with 
what may be called the subordinate or accompanying elements. Any 
European judge would probably say that we give less of meat and bread, 
and more of olives and almonds, and ices, and sweets. 

2. A second difference is found in the important fact that everywhere 
in Europe individual studies generally continue throughout the entire 
grammar school course, and generally through the course in the high 
school. Apparent but not real exceptions to this rule are sometimes 
found. For example, the time given to mathematics is divided between 
arithmetic, geometry, trigonometry, and analytical geometry; and the 
various studies of nature are divided in a similar way. The European 
masters say it is not pedagogically correct to concentrate the mind too 
continuously on a single kind of intellectual food. We do not nourish 
and develop the body by feeding it one kind of food for a month or 
three months, and then another kind for the following period, but we in- 
terchange them frequently in order to have the necessary variety, and 
keep alive an appetite for all. It is the universal claim of European ex- 
perience that the boy that comes to arithmetic and geography once or 
twice a week only comes with more zest than the boy who comes every 
day. It is the too frequent lessons of the same kind that produces that 
lassitude and dawdling spirit w^hich Professor Paulson (probably the 
greatest modern pedagogical authority) regards as the enemy most to 
be dreaded. He declares that hard work, when accompanied with 
alertness and interest do not produce nervous prostration. It is lack 
of interest, followed by neglect and anxiety and sense of failure, that 
breaks the pupil down. 

3. A third difference to be noted is the far greater prominence given 
in America to the text-book. Our publishers have drawn so success- 
fully upon the arts of bookmaking that they have made us the smiling 
slaves of their allurements. The books have become so charming that 
they have almost substituted pleasure for labor on the part of the 
teacher as well as the pupil. If the allurement were always toward 
the subject, rather than the book and the pictures, they would certainly 
leave nothing further to be desired. But if as we contended in the first 
part of this report, education still consists mainly of development, it 
must have much besides pleasant entertainment. If it be true, as it 
probably is, that the very attractiveness of a text-book lessens the neces- 
sity of work in the teacher, by shielding any incapacity or ignorance 
he may have, it follows that good text-books are in some danger of be- 
ing regarded as a fair substitute for good teachers. We are still too 
much given to the mere hearing of recitations, to driving and examin- 
ing rather than leading and inspiring. A boy may study grammar and 
recite well for years, and yet be habitually incorrect in his speech. 
Probably the only way to teach good language is by making the pupil 
use good language. — is by insisting upon the pupils' talking much and 
talking correctly, and then writing much and writing correctly. One 
of the members of this Committee spent a part of his time on the golf 
field in the course of the past summer vacation. Out of some forty 
caddies that he knew there was only one that used language with rep- 
utable accuracy. Such expressions as "I seen the ball go over the 
walk," and "If the ball had went a little higher," etc., were of frequent 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 17 

and never ending occurrence. And yet these were bright boys, for the 
most part from the seventh and eighth grades in what was supposed to 
be an excellent mood. It was painfully evident that their teachers had 
simply required the boys to learn their lessons and recite them in a 
perfunctory way, without giving them any adequate drill' in the art of 
correct oral expression. And this brings us to the 

4. Fourth and most important difference of all between the two sys- 
tems. Nobody can read the program of any of the European schools 
without perceiving that they can not be carried out with any approach 
to perfection, except by thoroughly well equipped and skillful teachers. 
We are unquestionably greatly in advance of the Europeans in our 
school houses and our material appliances; but they are as much in ad- 
vance of us in the quality of their 'teaching as they are behind us in 
the matter of school houses. The school laws show that their exactions 
of teachers are immeasurably higher than ours. Any one who has been 
present at a lesson in Germany, or in France, will not soon forget the 
impression made upon him by the clearness and distinctness and accur- 
acy with which the boys and girls give summaries of the lessons they 
have learned, or of the oral instruction they have received. This is 
their way of teaching accurate habits of oral expression. 

IV. 

We now come to the third general division of the subject, namely, the 
number of schools in the United States that have recently modified the 
grade program by the introduction of Latin, German, geometry, or al- 
gebra, and the opinions of superintendents and principals in regard to 
the value and influence of such modifications. 

On looking at the several reports of the United States Commissioner 
of Education for the last ten years, we find that the increase of enroll- 
ment of pupils in Latin in our secondary schools is relatively larger 
than the increase in any other study. The figures given in the latest 
report indicate that in 1897 the number in the country studying Latin 
in secondary schools was about 175,000 more than the number that were 
studying it in 1890. The increase in the North central division of the 
United States was even greater than in the country at large. While In 
1890 the number reported as studying Latin was 38,833, the number 
pursuing the same study in 1898 was 117,731. Thus it is shown that the 
number in 1898 studying Latin in the secondary schools was more than 
three times as great as had been the number studying it in 1890. That 
this increase is not confined to any one part of the country is indicated 
by the fact that in the North Atlantic division the number studying 
Latin in the secondary schools advanced in the course of eight years 
from 39,763 to 88,484; that in the South Atlantic division the number 
increased from 11,299 to 25,126, in the South central division from 
7,253 to 27,611, and that in the Western division, which includes all the 
states west of the Rocky Mountains, the increase was still more marked, 
the figures being 3,066 for 1890, and 15,341 for 1898, an increase of more 
than five-fold. 

From these interesting figures we should expect to find that of the so- 
called "strengthening studies" Latin has been the one most generally in- 
troduced into schools of grammar grade. Such we find to have been the 
fact. While in not a few of the schools German, geometry and al- 
gebra, have been introduced into the seventh and eighth grades, the 
tendency toward such an introduction seems not to have been so general 
as has been the case in Latin. It will, therefore, best serve our purpose 
to state the number of schools that have carried Latin into the gram- 
mar grades and then to indicate the opinions of superintendents and 
2 



18 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

principals concerning the advantages or disadvantages of the various 
changes that have been made. 

We find that there are fifty-nine cities or towns in which Latin is 
taught in grades below the high schools. In Massachusetts there are 
twenty-nine; in Connecticut five; in New York eight; in Michigan 
seven; in Illinois two; in Missouri two; in Minnesota two. with one 
each in four other states. While some of the schools, like the Boston 
Latin School and one of the schools in Connecticut have had Latin in 
the grammar grade from the establishment of the schools in the seven- 
teenth century, nearly all have developed their extended courses of in- 
struction within the past ten years — the most of them, in fact, within 
the past four years. Where a six years' program in Latin has been 
provided for, which extends over four years in the high school and two 
years in the grammar school, the tendency has been not so much to in- 
crease the number of hours given to Latin as to begin the Latin earlier 
in the course, when the mind seems particularly fitted for language 
study, and fhen to lessen the number of hours per week during the later 
years, in order that more time may be given to history, science and the 
mathematics, studies which are most advantageously pursued not in the 
earlier grammar grades, but at a time when greater maturity of the 
pupil has been reached. 

From the fifty-nine schools heard from only three persons have spoken 
in opposition to the beginning of the study of Latin in the grammar 
school grades. One objector said: "Give me boys and girls with a 
good, solid knowledge of arithmetic and English grammar, and not a 
smattering of this, that and the other." Another said: "Personally, I 
much prefer to expend the energies of our eighth grade students in 
leading them to an understanding of English thought and expression." 
A third, the principal of a small high school in Michigan, formulated 
his objections to Latin in the following manner: "First, since it must 
necessarily be elective in the beginning, many students who did not 
want Latin in the eighth grade would discover its value upon entering 
the high school and would be in a predicament. Second, there is a 
strong demand here for such work below the high school as will be the 
broadest and most liberal for that large number who leave school at this 
period. Had we retained the subject in the eighth grade I believe a 
prejudice would have started which eventually would have banished the 
subject entirely from our courses. Third, we carry students over about 
the same work now as then, and do it satisfactorily, as is judged by 
the universfty. Fourth, the subject was not taught by the eighth grade 
teacher, but by an assistant in the high school, thus overloading the 
already full program of work." 

These expressions embrace the sum total of the objections made in 
the letters received. Now let us come to opinions in commendation. 
It is not possible to quote from all the letters, nor is it practicable to 
classify the advantages that have been pointed out. Something in the 
way of generalization, however, may be attempted, and a few of the 
more important expressions of opinion may be quoted. 

The superintendent of schools at Braintree, Mass., writes: 

"During 'the past three years all pupils in the two highest grades of 
the grammar school have been very glad of the opportunity of studying 
both Latin and algebra." 

The superintendent of Belmont writes: 

"Algebra has been taught in the grammar grade for three or more 
years. Pupils are better prepared for high school work in mathematics, 
and there is not such a gulf between the high and grammar schools as 
formerly. Latin only this year. No results yet. Pupils are fond of 
manual training and do their work well." 

The superintendent at Chelsea writes: 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 19 

"We are now doing quite a good deal in this subject (strengthening 
the grammar schools below the eighth grade). The pupils who have 
French and Latin do much less in English in the upper grades." 
The superintendent at Canton writes: 

"Algebra and geometry are taken in place of arithmetic for several 
years, with good results. The pupils have no difficulty in understand- 
ing the elements of these subjects. They broaden the mind of a child 
in a way not possible through arithmetic alone." 
Ths superintendent at Chelsea wrftes: 

"The study of Latin has been of great benefit in easing up the first 
year of the high school. The study does not meet with any opposition 
from the pupils taking it. The only question is whether or not French 
and German are not more practical studies." 
The superintendent at Clinton writes: 

"Algebra and geometry with physics may be taken in all graded 
schools without harm from crowding, if they are wisely correlated with 
other subjects and the development of the child is regarded as of more 
importance than the teaching of subjects." 
The superintendent at Concord writes: 

"Pupils enter the high school having pretty well mastered Latin in- 
flection and with considerable knowledge of Latin syntax, a fair vocab- 
ulary and some ability to translate easy Latin into English. Algebra 
not tried long enough to see results. Demonstration work in geometry 
practical and attended with good results." 
The superintendent at Gardner writes: 

"For those who take Latin a part of the English grammar and com- 
position is omitted. In my judgment it is desirable to have Latin as 
an elective in grammar grades." 

The superintendent of Milton writes: 

"I look for this work (Latin, algebra, and geometry) to open avenues 
of knowledge to the pupil who does not go beyond the grammar school, 
which would otherwise be always closed to him and in which it will al- 
ways be profitable and pleasurable for him to walk." 

The superintendent of North Adams says, in regard to Latin and 
algebra: 

"We have experienced excellent results, good effect on English, in- 
creased interest in school work." 

From the superintendent at Pittsfield we receive word: 
"We introduced algebra and geometry into our grammar school course 
for the improvement of the grammar school work, and not for the pur- 
pose of anticipating or sustaining the work of the high school. We aim 
to give our pupils through this brief study of algebra and geometry 
clearer ideas on mathematical truths in their practical aspects than 
they would naturally get from their arithmetic alone, as well as some- 
what broader views and insight and mental alertness." 
The principal at Omaha, Neb., writes: 

"The results from the algebra have been quite satisfactory. The time 
of the geometry has been too short to show uniform or ^tensive re- 
sults." 

The superintendent at Trenton, N. J., says: 

"For pupils who desire to get the best knowledge of English they . 
can in the grammar school the study of Latin is the most direct way of 
strengthening the pupil's power in English." 

The superintendent at Warrensburg, Mo., says ih regard to Latin, 
algebra, and geometry in the grade schools: 

"All these subjects have here been taught with excellent results. We 
have had occasionally failures, but they rank as the exceptions." 
The superintendent at Braintree, Mass.: 
"It is more natural, and hence much easier for the child of twelve to 



20 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

learn and remember the Latin paradigms than for one of fifteen years. 
I advocate Latin in preference to French with the idea that the foreign 
language is to begin in the latter part of the grammar school course. 
If the foreign language were to begin with pupils at six or seven years 
of age, then, of course, French would be much better than Latin." 
The superintendent at Brooklyn, N. Y., writes: 

"Algebra has been taught in the grammar schools for the last twenty 
years. Inventional geometry was introduced about four years ago. 
Manual training has not been introduced in the grammar schools except 
in the form of drawing, modeling in clay, cutting and folding paper." 
The superintendent at Denham, Mass., writes: 

"Latin is an extra optional study in the final grammar grades. I am 
In favor of all pupils taking some language besides English in the gram- 
mar school. Pupils should be allowed to choose between Latin and 
some modern language." 

The superintendent of schools in Boston writes: 

"At present Latin is taught in five grammar schools, French in nine, 
geometry in eight, and algebra in thirty-five. Last year 249 pupils in 
the grades were taught Latin, 656 were taught French, 434 were taught 
geometry, and 1,718 were taught algebra." 

The principal of the Hawthoi-ne school, Chicago, writes: 
"We have had Latin in this grammar school since 1895, beginning 
with about forty pupils. The work is commenced at the first of the sev- 
enth grade and continued through the eighth grade. I am of the opin- 
ion that the study of Latin in the grammar grades is a wise measure." 
The Principal of the Douglas School, Chicago, writes: 
"We have Latin in our seventh and eighth grades and find the English 
much improved since its introduction. Exactness required in the study 
of Latin makes exactness in all of the other studies easier of attain- 
ment. Our principal object in introducing Latin into our grammar 
grade was that we might have a better and broader foundation for our 
English. As yet I have not discovered a single disadvantage." 
The Principal of the Wells School, writes: 

"Latin was made an optional study here in 1895. Pupils sufficient to 
fill two rooms elected to take the study. I also had two rooms of pupils 
of the same grade, the seventh, which did not take it. At the end of 
the year there was a very marked difference between the work of those 
studying Latin and those who did not, and this difference was in favor 
of those who studied the Latin. The eighth grade Latin class of this 
year is superior to the other eighth grade class. The same superiority 
is observable in the seventh grade Latin class of this year. As I know 
from the work of preceding years that the pupils who take Latin are in 
every respect superior to those who do not take it, I can come to no 
other conclusion than that it does more for them in the study of Eng- 
lish than tlie present slip-shod way of teaching English grammar. It 
requires a discrimination which immeditely becomes available to them 
in their other studies. I would most heartily favor Latin as a compul- 
sory study in the seventh and eighth grades, even if I knew the pupils 
never were to open a Latin book afterwards." 

The Principal of the L. Nettlehorst School, writes: 
"We have had Latin in our schools since 1895, and we think it one of 
the best disciplinary studies that we have. Pupils learn to be accurate. 
It is of great assistance to the study of English. It increases the vocal> 
ulary of the pupil and aids in work of literature. Our best thinkers 
are the Latin pupils. We would feel the loss of it were it taken from 
the school." 

The Principal of the Brentano School, Chicago, writes: 
"Now, as a practical educator, I hear you ask, 'Where do you find 
room for the study?' Well, in the first place, the Latin class takes no 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 21 

technical English grammar. We intend to analyze sentences later on 
this year, I mean the more difficult selections, like Bryant's 'Thanatop- 
sis.' Is it not a fact that the grammar, even the English grammar, will 
be better understood by the Latin pupils than by the English? Well, 
why? Because one can make something of the study of the English 
language without understanding the underlying principles of grammar, 
while to understand Latin at all one must always have regard to all 
grammatical principles and rules. Grammar is in every sentence, yea, 
every word. And so, having constant need of grammar, they learn it, 
and learn it well. Children of the grammar grades take to Latin in a 
surprising mannei'. The study of language seems natural to them. 
They take a great interest in it. The training they get out of it I need 
not repeat to you. Every educator- knows this. Some of its advantages 
to our pupils are: When they enter the high school they feel more at 
home. Everything is not new. If they desire to study pharmacy, and 
have not the time to go to high school, they can understand the terms 
used in the lectures. They acquire the habit of close examination of the 
sentence, whether English or Latin, before they make up their minds 
as to its meaning." 

It is perhaps unnecessary to multiply these quotations. They might 
be much increased in number but representative schools have been se- 
lected, and with the exception of the three adverse reports above given, 
they are all of the same import. It would also be easy to give evidence 
of the advantageous results that are believed to have come from the in- 
troduction of algebra and geometry in place of arithmetic. 

In view of the facts that have now been presented and the compari- 
sons that have been made, your committee are of the opinion that al- 
though it would be possible, it would be by no means desirable, to 
shorten the grammar school course. It is useless to try to build upon 
any other foundation than a foundation of existing facts and conditions. 
Opinions are conditions; and although they may be gradually modified 
and perhaps eventually transformed, they cannot safely be ignored or 
neglected. In all parts of the country the grammar schools have gravi- 
tated or crystallized into eight grades, and in our opinion any attempt 
to lessen the number of grades would weaken the repute of the system 
and end in failure, if not in disaster. 

But when the question is asked whether the courses of grammar grade 
can be improved or "enriched," our answer is very different. We be- 
lieve that some of the courses that now form a part of the grammar 
school program should be reduced, and that others should be elimin- 
ated altogether. This process would leave room for the introduction 
of other and mor- ^eful studies. The fabric should have more of 
solid cloth and less of fringe and ornament. It would be perfectly prac- 
ticable, if desirable, by reducing the amount of time given to some 
studies and by eliminating others to provide for at least a good elemen- 
tary knowledge of two languages besides English. These languages in 
our opinion should be either German and Latin, or German and French. 
Further than this, we believe that interspersed between the lessons of 
the day there should be far more attention paid to certain subjects that 
up to the present time have been almost entirely neglected. We have in 
this state the best manual training school in the country, and probably 
the best in the world. At the Menomonie school boys and girls are 
taken from the grammar school and high school into the manual train- 
ing department for an hour a day without in any way detracting from 
the amount or quality of their lessons in the regular program The 
testimony is uniform that the 'pupils all look forward to the hour with 
pleasure, and it is hard to see how any one can observe what they ac- 
complish without perceiving that the hour must be as profitable as 
pleasurable. The boys are taught the arts of working in wood and 



22 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

i 
metal, and Che girls are thoroughly drilled in the mysteries of the sew- 
ing room, the kitchen and the dining-room. Many students become very 
proficient in drawing and the arts of design. All this can be added 
We said above that all this is possible, "if desirable." As to whether 
these changes are desirable, there will inevitably, at least for the pres- 
ent, be differences of opinion. School systems are conservative, and 
wisely so. It is seldom that creation can take the place of develop- 
ment. Even the German system, so radically modified in 1810, was 
built up on what already existed. So it must be with us. But while 
we keep in mind this fact, we must also be open to conviction as to the 
possibilities of improvement along lines already established. 

We stated early in this report that in our opinion the great end of 
elementary education should be not so much to store the mind with 
facts in the vain hope that they can be used in later life, as to create 
certain qualities of mind and character. Those attributes were stated 
to be: "A habit of discriminating observation, the possession of the 
inductive faculty, that power of contingent reasoning which we call 
good judgment, the ethical ability to discriminate correctly and clearly 
between right and wrong, and a serene force of conscience and charac- 
ter which may be relied upon to accept the right and reject the wrong." 
If, as we believe, these are the fundamental essentials of a good educa- 
tion, they must first of all be considered in framing a good program of 
study. We would not be understood as contending that the establish- 
ment of these characteristics in the pupil is all that should be done. 
Information of value may and should be imparted; but even such in- 
formation should be of a nature to expand the faculties and enlarge the 
views of life rather than of the kind that is sure to be forgotten without 
having exerted an expanding and inspiring influence. 

Adopting these views as of fundamental importance, we are of the 
opinion that any considerable improvements in the grade courses can 
only be made along the lines indicated. There will necessarily be dif- 
fering opinions as to the extent to which these principles should be 
carried. Even the members of the committee might differ one from an- 
other as to what courses should be reduced or eliminated, and what 
should be substituted. But we are in harmony in thinking that the 
courses ought to be modified, and modified as rapidly as is practicable 
in the manner we have pointed out. No abrupt revolution is called 
for or advocated. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the work of 
improvement along these lines can only go hand in hand with improve- 
ments in the work of instruction; and even these efforts must be ac- 
companied with constant endeavors to elevate public opinion in regard 
to the fundamental essentials of a superior school. If, therefore, we 
were to sum up in a few words all that we have to say on the question 
submitted to us, we should do it under these three heads: 

1. Do not shorten the grammar school course; but encourage in every 
practicable way the best pupils to advance from one class to another 
without waiting for the majority. Every grammar school teacher 
should be instructed and required to keep a sharp lookout for the "lads 
and lassies of pairts" and to urge them forward to such proficiency as 
will advance them without waiting for the crowd. 

2. The courses should be modified by judicial excisions and the sub- 
stitution of a better and a larger amount of linguistic study, perhaps 
algebra, and the introduction of manual training. 

3. Pride in good schoolhouses, however great and justifiable, should 
be supplemented as rapidly as possible by pride in good teachers. It 
is teachers and not schoolhouses that educate. An opportunity alone 
does not achieve. The real thing is the way in which the opportunity 
is used, and therefore it is the worst of bad policy to allow efforts to be 
exhausted or even weakened in preparing the opportunity rather than 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 23 

in using it after it is ready. Let the normal schools ever keep before 
their eyes the fundamental law which declares: "The exclusive pur- 
poses and objects of the normal schools shall be the instruction and 
training of persons, both male and female, in the theory and art of 
teaching, and in the various branches that pertain to a good, common 
school education, and in all subjects needful to qualify for teaching in 
the public schools; also to give instruction in the fundamental laws of 
the United States and of this State in what regards the rights and du- 
ties of citizens." Let all superintendents "cry aloud and spare not" in 
their insistence for teachers that shall know not only the content but 
also the method of instruction. Let it be understood universally that 
the real thing is to kindle a glowing and lasting fire in the pupil's heart, 
and that this cannot be done with paper and shavings alone. Let school 
■boards have no peace until they admit that no elaborateness of a dining- 
room is a fit excuse or apology for any inadequacy in the quantity and 
■quality of the diet. 

C. K. Adams, 
A. N. Faikchild, 
Wm. E. Anderson, 
F. E. DoTT, 

A. J. HUTTON, 

Committee. 



24 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 



PROF. GRAH.\M TAYLOR, CHICAGO THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AND RESIDENT 
AVARDEN OF CHICAGO COMMONS SOCIAL SETTLEMENT. 

We may apply Hawthorne's remark about "Christian things" to school 
interests, and think them to be "like stained glass windows which can 
be seen only from within." But this can be only partially true, for if we 
teachers would catch the perspective of our work, we can see it only 
from without, at some point of view where the school is best to be seen 
in the setting of its surroundings, and our teaching in its relation to 
contemporary life. Need is ever the interpreter of truth. Truth may 
abide the same, but its application must differ as rapidly and radically 
as the needs of life change. Ten years in Europe or America see more 
changes in human life than a cycle in Cathay. The point at which 
modern methods of living separate themselves from the ancient is mark- 
ed by the name and thought of Francis Bacon. In his "Novum 
Organum" he initiated what has been aptly called "the Baconian Re- 
bellion." For since he revolutionized the method of procedure in 
human thought and action nothing has remained unchanged. ' No class 
or craft, no farm or factory, no philosophy or cult, no church or creed, 
no state or school lives, moves and has its being as before. To live, 
life must adjust itself to its environment. For the conservation and 
production of its energy, it must depend upon the school to readjust 
living to the changing conditions of life? I am asked by your President 
to present such evidences of the changing conditions of human life as 
are to be discerned from the social settlement, where life may be studied 
In the original, as may help interpret the truth concerning the social 
function of the school. Though located among the working poor, usu- 
ally in the densest populations of our great cities the social settlement 
affords one of those rare points of view which geologists know how to 
find for their students, where the social strata comes to the surface all 
on end and close together. Thence all classes may be studied, as each 
is brought in turn to a touchstone which tests its innermost character. 
Thence are to be seen not only the capacity of the less privileged 
classes; the debasement of involuntary idleness among the rich and the 
poor and the vicious demoralization of voluntary idleness both at the 
top and the bottom of the economic scale; the debt of learning to labor 
and the right to labor, to culture and to the efflorescence of life which 
alone makes it worth the living. Thence the trend of the present so- 
cial transition is plainly discerned to be from the independence of the 
one against another to the co-operative combinations of capital and 
labor; from the closing era of individualism with all its splendid 
achievements to the opening era of mutualism with all its grander pos- 
sibilities. Thence the necessity of learning and teaching the fine art 
of living and working together becomes mandatory, and the greatest 
question in education for the school to answer is seen to be how to 
train the individual to fulfill his partnership in society. To this end 
the school, especially the public school, has three great social functions 
to fulfill, "(l) To teach the ideal form of social relationship; (2) to af- 
ford in its building and organization a common ground for realizing 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 25 

at least some of the social ideals of community life, which it teaches; 
(3) to generate the sacrificial spirit in the individual citizen, without 
which no ideal life can be realized. 

Horace Mann truly said "Where anything is growing, one formatory 
is worth a thousand reformatories." In America our cities are growing 
as fast as our boys and girls. The country must look to the public 
schools to be the formatories of the ideals which our boy and girl-citi- 
zenship is to have of civic life and municipal progress. The debasement 
of the political and commercial ideals of city government was con- 
trasted witli the ideal of the "ancient city," namely, that of a compact 
of families to promote their common wealth. The meal of labor and of 
the relation of respectful and co-operative interdependence in which it 
should hold all members of the community itself needs to be formed 
anew in the consciousness of the people. To this end the school life it- 
self should be organized as a little ideal community of unequal, yet 
interdependent parts, each working for all, all helping each. Inconsist- 
ent with the formulation of such an ideal and tne rendering of such 
service to the state is the competitive basis on which most schools are 
conducted. For it rewards the successful competitor in what is usu- 
ally a selfish struggle and, as Prof. Dewey declares, makes a "school- 
crime" of that co-operation which should be the highest aim of the 
school to promote within and beyond its sphere. The school is or 
should be tne flag-staff of the community, at the mast-head of which 
should ever be kept floating the highest ideal of life, individual and 
social. 

The school, building and yard constitute about the only little patches 
of Mother Earth owned by all the people upon which every one has the 
right to meet with every other one on absolutely common ground. The 
administration of this common possession constitutes the greatest trust 
committed by the community to our Board of Education and to the 
teachers of our schools. The educational and social democracy so truly 
maintained among the children of the people should be extended among 
their fathers and mothers, older brothers and sisters by a public school 
extension movement for the social unification and education of the 
whole people. In the assembly halls of our schools the cosmopolitan 
and often antagonistic elements of our city center population, as of our 
rural districts, should be gathered for social intercourse, personal ac- 
quaintanceship and community co-operation. Lectures, illustrated by 
the stereopticon, on American history and biography; old country talks 
about the heroes and histories of the Fatherlands; uiscussions of funda- 
mental principles of law and government; political economy, and in- 
dustrial economics, domestic science, sanitation and hygiene should 
brighten the winter season. The love of the beautiful should be incul- 
cated by the artistic adornment of our school interiors. Musical culture 
in choral clubs and oratorio societies would elevate and harmonize our 
communities far more cheaply than the cost of stamping out dissension 
by force. The social settlements are demonstrating at the heart of 
these very densest and most heterogenous populations the entire prac- 
ticability and high efficiency of these educational methods of promot- 
ing the betterment of municipal conditions by the co-operative effort 
of all classes and of bringing about the social unification of the people 
by bringing them into friendly personal relationships at a center which 
they feel to be neutral ground belonging equally to all. 

Only by the training which the school can best give in the spirit and 
practice of self-sacrifice can these social ideals ever be realized or even 
seriously entertained. Worthiness must be measured by service ren- 
dered, not received. Patriotism must be made to mean service to the 
city, state or nation at personal coet. The glory of civic, industrial and 



26 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

social self-denial must be made glorious to all classes equally. Democ- 
racy must be nothing less than a religion. To survive it must be in- 
spired witb the religious passion — as the very breath of its life — to live 
for others, not for self, to minister unto others, not to be ministered 
unto, to have public luxury at the expense of private frugality. 

To impart this spirit to our scholars and communities, we teachers 
must have and practice it. By the sanctities of this, our holy calling, 
we should be reordained to our most sacred service to the community. 
By the destinies of the republic which depend imperatively upon the 
fulfillment by the schools of their social function should they be re- 
dedicated to their unique, indispensable and glorious mission to the na- 
tion and the world for the Twentieth Century and its on-coming social 
democracy. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 27 



MUSIC m THE RURAL SCHOOLS. 



C. L. GOTHAM. 

That benefits are derived from the study of vocal music in the public 
schools is no longer an open question. If rightly taught, it affords 
excellent mental discipline. Sight reading necessitates quick thought 
and prompt execution. The beneficial effects of good music on charac- 
ter formation are inestimable. Who has not had his courage aroused, 
his sympathies deepened, and his determinations strengthened by 
music! 

The demand for systematic instruction in music in our rural schools 
is not based on fanciful speculations. In most of our city schools this 
subject has been introduced, and the results have justified its continu- 
ance. No one denies that the effect of good music is elevating and en- 
nobling. It quickens the intellect and trains for citizenship. What 
Taetter claim has any branch for a place on the program of school work? 

The aim in teaching music is two-fold, to create a love for good music, 
•and to make pupils independent singers. These should be kept con- 
stantly in mind as the goal toward which we are working. A love for 
good music comes only as a result of^ hearing and singing good music. 
We should be as careful in the choice of appropriate music as we are 
in the selection of good literature. In teaching rote singing (which 
will be spoken of later), much can be accomplished. By independent 
singers we do not mean soloists, but we do mean that the pupils should 
develop the ability and courage to sing a part independently. 

There are some practical obstacles to the general introduction of 
music into the common schools, which must be overcome, if this work 
is to gain a place. The hindrances most common are these: (1) 
Teachers of such schools are quite commonly unqualified to teach it. 
(2) The parents and school boards are not well aware of the benefits to 
be derived from having music taught in their schools. (3) It must 
take the place of some other work for the daily program is already full. 

These obstacles are not insurmountable, but they can be overcome 
only by the systematic efforts of those who are interested in the cause 
of music and alive to its needs. 

It seems to me that the first step to be taken in this direction is to 
provide means whereby teachers may become qualified to teach music. 
The normal schools and other institutions of higher learning are doing 
this kind of work and are accomplishing good results, but these results 
are felt mostly in the cities and not very much in the rural districts. 
For many years to come the vast majority of rural school teachers must 
be made up of those who have had little, if any, normal school training 
and many of whom have never studied vocal music at all. Some have 
studied it in the city schools but know very little about teaching it. 

I know of no more effective and general means of getting at this dif- 
ficulty than by dealing with music in teachers' institutes and summer 
schools. This would in itself be a slow means because of the amount 
of work that is necessary. But it would give a great impetus to the 
study of nausic and would in time accomplish much. Many teachers 
would, no doubt, take private lessons as a resufl. In this way teachers 
Avould not only master the subject but would learn how to teach it. 

That the people of the rural districts do not feel the need of music 



28 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

in their schools is of course, an impediment to the work. But in many 
cases the d'lfflculty resulting from this lack of interest is, I think, more 
imaginary than real. The remedy lies very largely in the ability and 
spirit of well qualified and energetic teachers. If the teacher is thor- 
oughly qualified to handle music and undertakes the work in a judi- 
cious but whole hearted manner, her ability and confidence will beget 
confidence and interest in both pupils and parents. 

When parents see that their children are really making progress 
in independent music reading, there is little difficulty in getting them 
to buy books and co-operate in the work. At least, such has been my 
observation. 

It is not necessary that the school should be supplied with charts 
on the start, neither is it advisable to ask a school board to furnish 
this material until they have reason to hope for success in the under- 
taking. Members of school boards are generally men of business qual- 
ities. They are unwilling to spend money for that which promises 
no return. Therefore teachers should be cautious about asking for 
material until they can show that the required expenditure is war- 
ranted from a practical point of view. 

During the first few weeks, blackboard exercises are even better than 
charts or books, and during that time sufficient interest should be 
awakened to result in the procuring of material either through the par- 
ents directly or through the school board. This certainly is possible if 
the teacher has good tact and courage. 

It is not an easy matter to assign a place for music in the daily pro- 
gramme that will meet with general approval. It certainly would not 
seem best to have an additional number of recitations for the pro- 
gramme is already crowded. If the systematic teaching of music finds 
a place in the common schools, it must alternate with some other 
branch. The technique of music is very largely mathematical. There- 
fore, I would suggest that it be taught twice a week in place of arith- 
metic, throughout the entire course, and that singing be used as an 
opening and closing exercise every day. 

There is some difference of^ opinion as to the advisability of teach- 
ing rote singing in school. It seems to me that, while scale exercises 
should be taken up at the very beginning of the work, still rote sing- 
ing has a very important place in the early stages as a means of de- 
veloping rhythm, training the ear, and creating a taste for good music. 
It affords a good opportunity for establishing right habits in singing. 

As somewhat of a guide in teaching rote singing so as to establish 
good habits and taste, the following suggestions may be helpful: 

The teacher should sing the song in short phrases. The children 
should then sing after her, repeating each phrase until learned, then 
joining them. The teacher should not speak of breath but provide such 
songs as will allow of natural breathing, or if the phrases are rather 
long, sing rapidly enough so that the children can easily sustain their 
breath to tlae end of the phrases. If the breath is not sufficient to 
sustain the tone to the proper breathing places the pupils will soon sing 
out of time. Take plenty of time at breathing places. Gasping for 
breath means that the time for taking breath between phrases is not 
long enough. No sound of breathing should be heard. Sing softly 
and do not allow the children to use loud, coarse tones. The example 
of the teacher is more effective in securing this result than any amount 
of instruction. If the pupils are allowed to use coarse, harsh tones, 
they not only spoil the effect of the music, but injure their voices. 

Do not allow pupils, especially young children, to use the chest regis- 
ter. This can be prevented by using music that is pitched high, or 
that starts on a high pitch and does not run very low. The higher 
tones of a child's voice are much sweeter than the lower ones, and their 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 29 

use is perfectly natural provided that the child is not attempting to 
drag chest tones up to a high pitch. In going from high tones to low 
ones the head register can be maintained, provided the tones do not run 
very low. Use such music as is suggestive of pleasant and cheerful 
thoughts and make the music hour a pleasant occasion. A child's 
frame of mind has a powerful effect on his ability to sing. If he feels 
listless or fretful, little can be accomplished. Never allow children to 
sing out of tune. If they are inclined to flat in a given place, try 
making them sing more softly, more distinctly, more brightly, more 
rapidly. Make unaccented beats lighter. If all this fails, drop the 
piece for a while that the habit of singing out of tune may not be 
formed. Correct false tones at once. Never allow a child to think 
that he is singing correctly when he is not. If the ear of a child is 
very deficient, deal with him alone as far as possible. If he cannot 
get the right pitch in starting the piece, it is well sometimes to let 
him take his own pitch and start the song. Then the teacher may join 
him and sing it through. It is often well in such cases to cause such 
a pupil to simply sit and listen for a while. Make tne vowels the prin- 
cipal part of the words. Increase the musical difficulties as fast as 
the pupils improve in ability to receive them. Success in this work 
depends very largely on the earnestness and enthusiasm of the teacher. 
She is the soul of the work and must feel and reflect the thought and 
purpose of each song that she teaches. 

Now, regarding the scale exercises, they of course furnish the prin- 
cipal part of the work. The scale itself must be taught by rote. But 
after the scale is taught, the work becomes largely mathematical, and 
whatever pedagogical principles apply in teaching arithmetic will also 
apply in teaching these exercises. The work should be definitely 
planned as a whole, and each exercise should be so thoroughly planned 
that the teacher knows just what she expects to accomplish, and how 
she expects to accomplish it. 

Since one of the chief objects of the work is to develop independence 
in singing, it becomes necessary that the pupils should do individual 
work, that is, sing exercises alone. But this part of the work must 
be managed with great care. It requires sympathy and patience on 
the part of the teacher and courage on the part of the pupils, who are 
unaccusto'med to hear their own, or one another's voices put to this 
use. Any little mistake is liable to be a source of great amusement. 
A spirit of earnestness and sympathy in the teacher will, however, soon 
find response in the pupils and the novelty will soon wear off. Still, 
some pupils are so very self conscious that they cannot at first sum- 
mon up courage enough to sing even the simplest exercise. In that 
case they should be given a chance to sing the exercises before the 
teacher alone until they get over some of their timidity. Doubtless 
it is best, for some time at least, to keep the individual work simpler 
than the general chorus work, until the pupils have had time to become 
accustomed to singing alone. Duets, trios and quartettes should also be 
sung frequently, after the class has progressed far enough to sing the 
various parts. 



30 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



THE AEGUMENT EOE THE NOEMAL SCHOOL IN THE 
LIGHT OF CHANGED CONDITIONS. 

K. H. HALSEY. 

Sixty-one years ago yesterday the Massachusetts Board of Education 
passed the resolution providing for the establishment of two normal 
schools in tTiat state, — the first in America. Upon the occasion of the 
opening of the first at Lexington, Edward Everett, then Governor of 
Massachusetts, delivered an address in which, with clear insight into 
the requisites for the training of teachers, he, enumerates the four prin- 
cipal lines of training which the normal school should undertake: (1) 
A careful review of the branches required to be taught in the common 
schools; (T) Careful instruction in the art of teaching; (3) Careful 
training in school management; (4) The exemplification and testing 
of the foregoing principles in a school of practice. I think we shall 
agree that Everett's outline would not be far amiss for the basis of 
work in a modern normal school, if we include in it the amplification 
that he gives to what constitutes the art of teaching. 

The very next year after the opening of the Lexington school the 
Philistines were upon it. They "viewed with alarm" the arbitrary and 
revolutionary ideas and actions of the State Board of Education, citing 
as illustrations of two of the dangerous tendencies of its policy the 
establishment of normal schools in imitation of France and Prussia, 
and the measure which sought to furnish a school library in each dis- 
trict of the Commonwealth. The objection to the first measure is 
"that every person who has himself undergone the process of instruct- 
ing must acquire by that very process the art of instructing others;" 
and to the second that it is "a means of molding the sentiments of the 
rising generation" in a country in which "religion and politics are so 
intimately connected with every other subject that the matter selected 
for the libraries can not be free from sectarian and political objections."' 

For a half century the opponents of normal schools have spent their 
energies in the amplification of this argument viewed in 1840. Indus- 
triously they have continued their opposition in spite of the fact that 
the appeal both to reason and experience has long since shown their 
words to be but "sounding brass and clanging cymbal." The one who 
today attempts to assail the normal school as an integral part of the 
state's rounded system of education relegates himself to the period of 
ancient history. 

In this slate during the past ten years there\ have been many changes 
in matters educational. The rapid increase in the number of high 
schools and their graduates has been accompanied by a proportional 
improvement in the work done in the high schools. The number of 
these graduates entering the normal schools has greatly increased, so 
that the number of graduates from the advanced course of the normal 
schools has increased many fold. The pedagogical department of the 
University has been amplified and strengthened so that the number 
of University graduates seriously intending to teach has greatly mul- 
tiplieo. In view of these changes have the normal schools kept pace 
with the general improvement? 

Let us consider some of the criticisms which are offered upon our 
work both by destructive and constructive critics: 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 31 

(1) We are told that there is an overproduction in the output of 
the normal schools. The last biennial report of the state superintend- 
ent of public instruction of Wisconsin shows that tnere are 2,577 teach- 
ers employed in the cities of this state. It is a difficult thing to de- 
termine just how large a percentage of these go out of service each 
year, but I think we shall agree that the average term of a city teacher 
at the present time is not more than seven years. This would show 
that we need 368 new teachers each year in the city schools. Last 
year there were graduated from the advanced course of the seven nor- 
mal schools 358 students. This will show that so far as the cities 
are concerned there is not as yet a sufficient number of normal school 
graduates to supply the demand for trained teachers. 

When we come to consider the condition of affair^ in the rural schools 
we are very far from meeting the demand. There were 9,800 teachers 
employed in these schools during the year '97-8. As we all know their 
term of service is not iso long in these schools as in the city schools, — 
probably not more than three or four years. Calculating, however, 
that 1-5 are changed every year, we find that there will be need of 
1,960 new teachers each year for the district schools. Last year there 
were 173 graduates from the elementary course of the six schools — 
not enough to supply one-tenth of the demand. It is with these sta- 
tistics that our friends who are endeavoring to secure the establish- 
ment of county training schools are reinforcing their arguments. It 
is of course true that the normal schools are supplying to the rural 
schools a much larger number of teachers than the number graduating 
from the elementary course would indicate. At least as many students 
as graduate from the elementary course leave school each year to teach 
in the rural districts. However, one cannot deny that the normal 
schools are not at present supplying a sufficient number of teachers 
for the district schools. Let no one claim, however, that the county 
training school can supersede the elementary course of the normal 
school. A school that requires a third grade teacher's certificate for 
admission and gives the holder a one year's course can not expect to 
take the place of a course in the normal school that requires a second, 
grade certificate for admission and two years for completion. The 
number of these county training schools ought to increase so that the 
immediate needs of the rural schools may be supplied, until by the 
increase of the number graduating from the elementary course of the 
normal school, the reinforcement coming from the graduates of the 
advanced course, the lengthening of the term of service of teachers in 
district schools, the needs of the rural schools for professionally trained 
teachers may be reasonably satisfied. If we should come to depend 
upon the county training schools entirely for the supply of teachers 
for rural schools I very much fear that we should repeat the unprofit- 
able experience of New York, when back in the thirties, she attempted 
to train her teachers in special classes in her academies. 

About the only consolation that we can find for the failure of our 
normal schools in this state to meet fully the need of the rural schools 
is the fact that we are much better provided with professionally trained 
teachers than the average throughout the United States, for we have 
one student enrolled in our normal schools to every 152 pupils en- 
rolled in the schools of the state, whereas the average for the United 
States is one normal student to 217 pupils in the schools. 

(2) It is claimed that a large proportion of the graduates of the 
normal schools do not fulfill their promise to engage in teaching after 
graduation, and that thus the state is under the expense of providing 
in a technical school instruction of a high order and at a considerable 
cost for those persons who should have depended upon their localities 
to provide them with such training, or secured it at their own expense. 



32 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

The statistics receixtly given to the press by the state superintendent 
with regard to the graduates of last year seem to me to answer that 
criticism quite effectually. 

(3) The statement is often made that the normal schools attract 
pupils away from the high schools before the course of the latter schools 
is completed. If by this is meant that the normal schools seek to 
induce pupils to leave the high schools by admitting them without 
examination, in so far as I know the charge is false. I am credibly 
informed tliat the uniform practice of the normal schools is to admit 
without examination only such persons as are graduates of high schools 
or colleges, students in other normal schools, or persons holding a 
teacher's certificate of second grade or higher. If, however, it is 
meant by this to bring an indictment against the normal schools be- 
cause they do not insist that every student admitted to their doors, 
who has attended a high school, shall complete his high school course 
before admission to the normal, then we must plead guilty, upon this 
count. But I had taken it that the object for which the state estab- 
lished the normal school was to train teachers for its schools both 
rural and urban: that if any person desired to save a year or two 
in his preparation for the work of teaching in the rural schools by 
entering the elementary course, he was not to be discouraged from so 
doing. 

(4) The normal schools are charged with being more largely aca- 
demic schools than professional. This is not the place to enter into 
an extended discussion upon this large question, but I must not leave 
it without reiterating the oft repeated statement that the academic 
instruction of the normal school and of the high school are very dif- 
ferent in their points of view. The consensus of opinion among prac- 
tical normal school men and among those who have made a most 
careful study of normal school work as related to the work of other 
schools in the scheme of public education is almost wholly in favor of 
such academic instruction. 

(5) It is stated that the graduates of normal schools are immature 
and are unfitted for positions involving any considerable respbnsibil- 
ity. Burke says: "You cannot draw an indictment against a nation." 
It is also true that you cannot draw an indictment that will stand 
against the graduates of normal schools as a class. Undoubtedly the 
very large influx of high school graduates during the past five or six 
years has greatly reduced the average age of the graduates from the 
advanced course as compared with what it was ten years ago. In fact 
it is frequently remarked in the Oshkosh school that the average age 
of the elementary graduate is even greater than that of the advanced 
course graduate. However, there can be no doubt that the graduate 
of the normal school has a much higher realization of the responsi- 
bility which he undertakes than has the average sophomore in college. 
The former has heard almost continually from the time of his admis- 
sion to the school of the grave responsibility which he assumes as an 
intending teacher, and some of this helps to make an impression upon 
him. The point of view from which each of his studies is approached 
— the child whom he is to take charge of — tends to develop in him a 
sense of responsibility. To say that these many young people at the 
age of twenty or twenty-one are immature is only paraphrasing the 
adage that you cannot put an old head on young shoulders. In order 
that the charge may have weight it must be shown that they have 
no higher sense of responsibility than other young people of the same 
age, and this my experience would lead me to contradict. 

(6) Our students are charged with expending their strength upon 
that which is purely formal — that the method or even a device seems 
of greater moment in instruction than the content. We recognize that 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 33 

the success of the normal school depends largely upon the training 
given to its graduates, enabling them to get their pupils to grasp typi- 
cal facts and from these analyze so as to work out a law or general prin- 
ciple. It is not claimed by any advocate of normal training that ex- 
cellent as that training is. it has the quality of a touchstone to trans- 
mute lead into gold. Undoubtedly there are many persons who have 
not been connected with the normal school long enough to become im- 
hued with its spirit, whose ability to comprehend any subject as a whole 
is limited, whose weakness of intellectual grasp would make them likely 
to seize upon the minutiae of method to the sacrifice of the more im- 
portant subject matter. It is unfair, however, to judge of the school 
as a whole By these exceptions. As Dr. Hillis has said: "No amount 
of college training will make a $2,000 man out of a two-cent boy." 

The testimony of those who are in a position to judge from the 
observation of many instances is directly to the contrary of this gen- 
eral indictment. Dr. Harris somewhere says that the normal school 
graduate, according to his observation, continues to grow in profes- 
sional skill for ten, twenty or even thirty years, while the non-profes- 
sionally trained teacher reaches his maximum skill in from three to 
five years. 

(7) It is charged that there is a lack of continuity in the work of 
the normal school, which tends to give a desultory quality to the train- 
ing there obtained. There is a shadow of truth in this statement. In 
the earlier days of these schools in this state the work had to be 
planned in such a way that it would convenience the continually fluctu- 
ating constituency of the schools. In the majority of the schools this 
is still more or less true, and so, to the observer who is used to the 
more permanent clientage of the high school or university, for instance, 
it seems as though the normal school, by its numerous courses of ten 
weeks in different branches, the frequency of final examinations upon 
the same, and the quarterly readjustment of programmes, was con- 
tinually engaged in tying up numerous small bundles of intellectual 
goods, that justify its being called the package department of the edu- 
cational department store. However, there is no doubt that the great- 
est good to the greatest number will be subserved in this way, so long 
as we have as large a proportion of our pupils going and coming at 
the end of each quarter as we have at the present time. "When the 
condition of affairs in Wisconsin comes to correspond more nearly to 
that in Massachusetts, and our students enter in September to remain 
throughout the year, we can then readjust our courses of study with 
the expectation that there will be less of scrappiness and more of con- 
tinuity in the work. 

(8) The graduates of the normal schools are said to be out of place 
as teachers in high schools. This brings us to the consideration of a 
question which has been much discussed already in this body and was 
presented only a year ago by Mr. Sage.. An exceedingly interesting 
and valuable paper upon the preparation of teachers for secondary 
schools is that read by Dean Russell of the Teachers' College, New York 
City, before the Department of Superintendence of the National Educa- 
tional Association at its last meeting. I ventured to say that there is 
not a representative of the Wisconsin normal schools present who, 
having read that paper, dissents theoretically from its conclusions. 
Dean Russefl would have every person employed as an instructor in 
a secondary institution the holder of a diploma which would represent 
at least one year's work subsequent to college graduation. That would 
mean at least seventeen years of study if the student had come up 
through a city school system and then entered college. But Mr. Rus- 
sell has in mind, when he speaks of secondary schools, the high schools 
of our larger or middle class cities, where salaries are paid to assist- 

3 



34 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

ants that will warrant their incurring the expense of such preparation. 
Let us see whether simply as a business proposition any one of us would 
advise a young man to undertake that outlay of time and money as 
an investment the return from which was to be the average salary paid 
an assistant in a Wisconsin secondary school. From the last biennial 
report of the state superintendent I learn that the average salary paid 
to assistants in free high schools in this state having four years' courses 
was $510, and to assistants in three years course high schools $383. 
The average salary paid to the 142 principals of our four years course 
high schools was $1,133, 22 receiving less than $900 each. The average 
salary paid to principals of three years course high schools was $737. 
These salaries are not a fair compensation for the time and money ex- 
pended in securing the preparation for such work, to say nothing of the 
peculiar qualifications in each case in the way of experience and ac- 
quired technical skill that would naturally enhance the value of the 
service rendered by that individual. And when I learn that, in spite 
of this unpromising outlook, 67 of the 146 principals of the four years 
course high schools this year, and 228 of their 404 assistants, hold uni- 
versity or college diplomas, and that even 14 of tne 67 principals of 
three years high schools are also college graduates, I am more than 
ever filled with admiration for the teaching force of Wisconsin free 
high schools, because so many of them accept as part pay for their 
services that which is not "current money with the merchant," though 
it is doubtless accepted at heaven's gate. We have a condition to face 
that it seems to me no amount of theorizing with regard to the rela- 
tive merits of the university or college graduate and the normal school 
graduate wHl enable us to alter. There are many positions as teach- 
ers in the free high schools of our state that no young man or woman 
would wittingly accept as a fitting return for the sacrifice he or she 
must make to secure a college degree. Thus a lar'ge number of posi- 
tions, so long as salaries remain at their present standard, must al- 
ways be open to those whose education has cost them less than has 
that of the university graduate. I do not mean to imply, however, 
that these are the only positions that remain open to the normal school 
graduate. It not infrequently happens that a school board, in select- 
ing a principal, has to choose between the greater general knowledge 
and special knowledge of the university graduate and the greater pro- 
fessional knowledge and. technical skill, backed by experience, of the 
normal school graduate, and it chooses the latter. But every one must 
see that the combination of these qualities will always be preferred, 
and so it happens that, wherever such a thing is possible, our stronger 
normal school graduates are gaining the additional knowledge and 
culture which the university can give them. 

Aside from the question of salary it is fair to inquire whether the 
university and colleges of the state are at present graduating or are 
likely in the near future to graduate a sufficient number of persons 
who give evidence of undertaking the profesion of teaching, as evinced 
by their attempting serious work in pedagogy, to meet the needs of 
the high schools of the state. Not including the high schools of Mil- 
waukee. Oshkosh, La Crosse, Manitowoc, Menomonie and a few others 
•not in the list of free high schools, there are 633 teachers in the high 
schools of the state. It would seem that there ought to be a longer 
tenure of office among these teachers than among those holding grade 
positions, but one-half of them are university or college graduates, some 
of whom have probably undertaken this work temporarily, so that 
an average term of service of seven years is as long as we can expect. 
This will necessitate 90 new teachers annually for these schools. I 
do not believe that the higher educational institutions of the state are 
giving us each year anything like that number of students desirous 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 35 

of making teaching their life work. This present year one-half of 
these teachers are university or college graduates, one-third normal 
school graduates, and one-sixth hold some form of teacher's certificate. 

It is a question whether the normal school graduate who has had 
his practice work with pupils of the eighth or ninth grade does not 
have a very great advantage over the inexperienced university grad- 
uate which more than compensates at first for the wider knowledge of 
the latter. For this the state is directly responsible in that it does 
not provide some form of practice school for the students of the peda- 
gogical department of the university. I cannot see that secondary 
instruction differs from elementary instruction to such an extent that 
the latter needs a department of practice for its preparing teachers 
while the former needs none. As yet I believe the only universities 
that have undertaken to provide anything like a department of prac- 
tice are Harvard, Columbia and Brown. The proper solution of the 
problem of preparing secondary teachers will not be reached until am- 
ple provision is made for this important portion of their training. 

It is not safe to take it for granted that the normal school gradu- 
ate is weak in special knowledge of the subject he may be called upon 
to teach in a secondary school. It was pointed out in the paper read 
before the Association last year upon this subject that one of our nor- 
mal schools (probably others, also) provides a course in physics that 
requires more time than in any of the higher institutions of learning 
except the state university. At least one of the normal schools provides 
a course for the teaching of physical geography in the high school that 
requires a year and a half. Other instances might be named. 

It is not, however, so much a question of general knowledge, or spe- 
cial knowledge, or professional knowledge, or technical skill that deter- 
mines the success or failure of the normal school graduate) or the uni- 
versity graduate in the high schoc' It is a question of the person- 
ality of the individual who underti ^ the work. The normal school 
which sends to the principalship of a b. .<xll high school one of its young 
and inexperienced graduates who is only two years removed from the 
high school course is very likely to suffer from its mistake in judg- 
ment. If tTie university does the same thing it is quite likely to suffer 
in the same way. 

It seems to me that the work of our normal schools would be very 
greatly enriched and the cause of education in the state would be cor- 
respondingly advanced if we could, by a kind of division of labor, un- 
dertake to provide for the training of special teachers in different lines 
of work fhat the experience of different schools has shown to be of 
value to the commonwealth. We cannot hope to retain either our own 
self respect or the regard of those who feel that they have a right 
to look to the normal schools for guidance in matters pertaining to 
the common schools, if we are content to be forced into leadership 
by the active demand for teachers of special subjects. We must an- 
ticipate the demand as an enterprising merchant does. At the pres- 
ent time the Milwaukee school is training kindergartners in sufficient 
numbers to meet the present needs of the state, and accordingly Wis- 
consin is faking an honorable position in the educational world in that 
most important department of educational development. I would sug- 
gest six other lines of activity, and that each school should undertake, 
in addition to its regular work, to meet the needs of the state for 
special teachers in one of these lines: Manual training, music, draw- 
ing, physical culture, vocal expression, and nature study and the ele- 
ments of agriculture. Each school would, of course, carry on its work 
in these departments just as it does at present; but the training of 
specialists in any one department would be limited to one school. The 
kindergarten ought to be an integral part of the model department of 



36 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

each school, but the training of kindergartners can be carried on best 
in the Milwaukee school. Similarly, manual training ought to be in- 
corporated in the course of study of each model department, but one 
school could very easily meet the requirements of the state for teach- 
ers of manual training. 

I can but feel that a movement in this direction would tend to give 
a distinctive character to each school, and would prove a quickening 
influence to the schools throughout the state that would more than 
justify the expense. It does not follow that all of these special lines 
of work can be entered upon at once, but as the demands of the schools 
increase and the resources of the state warrant, we could press toward 
the accomplishment of these ends in succession. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 37 



SOCIAL INTEEDEPENDENCIES. 

L. ISOBEL DAVIDSON, CHICAGO. 

Emerson says: 

"All are needed by each one. 
Nothing is good or true alone." 

All must recognize the facts of interdependence- It is a fact which 
stares us in the face, and we must yield to it because it is true. 

Man is a social being. He needs to come in close contact with his 
fellowmen to rightly develop the latent traits of compassion, generosity, 
and faith. It also tests his rate of power. 

Self-revelation is only possible through broad, sympathetic relation- 
ships. 

The new forces of our later civilization — and I need not stop to 
recount tnem, for he who runs may read — have brought new rela- 
tionship to which each of us must respond according to the spirit 
within us. "Am I my brother's keeper?" is no longer the question, 
but rather, "How can I best help my brother?" 

The revolution of the industrial world has brought about a definite 
and striking change in the attitude of the individual. We realize as 
never before, that man's best energy is conserved through useful activ- 
ity, whether it be mental or manual. It is fashionable nowadays to 
work; it is unfashionable to be idle. 

There is a social bond of giving and receiving which unites us in 
one common brotherhood. Toilers of every class, therefore, should be 
conscious of their obligations to those who receive from them, and those 
who render service to them. The crying need at the end of this nine^ 
teenth century is this: to so educate the heart and the mind of the 
injpressionable youth that social service may be elevated, enriched, and 
sweetened by individual attitude and effort. 

All this means a necessary change in the attitude of the school. We 
see now, as in the middle ages, a school or its ideal still existing when 
the necessrty which created it has long since passed by. Our present 
education is still dominated by the mediaeval conception of learning, 
which satisfies our desire to learn, to accumulate knowledge, but which 
does not develop our impulses to do, to create, to produce in some form, 
%oith and for our fellowmen. 

The change is slowly coming; it is making itself felt, in the intro- 
duction of manual training, the nature study, the sciences and arts, — 
and along with these, this later note — the recognition of the sociologic 
purpose which is affecting the phases of the curriculum, as well as the 
moral atmosphere of the^chool. 

The child itself forms a part of the great sociologTc whole, and with 
itself the center, ever increasing circles are constantly being drawn as 
life progresses. 

Shall we begin by placing limitations, and say that family life is the 
first circle? 

Social contact is a controlling element, and here the child comes in 
direct, immediate contact with the members of the family. 

The various home activities are factors in his development. His 
individual, egoistic life is affected by and through the life of the fam- 



38 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

ily, and it forms a part of his environment, molds his impulses from 
which, even if he should so wish, he can never be wholly free. The 
home, the important factor in society, may be social or unsocial. 
Selfishness may reign, or good-will have sway. Home life should guard 
jealously the best in childhood, simplicity, naturalness, courtesy, re- 
finement, and above all, spirit. It should inculcate the principle of 
giving, and no less the graciousness of receiving, because it is here 
the joy of service, inspired by love, finds vent. 

In the well-regulated home the child is prepared for the larger life 
outside this miniature world — the larger life which includes, rightly, 
too, the neighborhood plays, the kindergarten, and the school. 

When the little toddler '"runs away," or seeks his playmate in the 
next dooryard, he is following that instinct for companionship, for 
social life which is his heritage. He draws the second circle around 
the first. 

The life of the family, of the neighborhood, of the kindergarten, 
and the schools, these are the beginnings of sociologic explorations. 
His v/hole life is affected by the measure of persons, peoples and con- 
ditions, which grow to be a part of himself in these early experiences 
of his vouth. Every human being with whom he comes in contact 
is a new study, a new revelation to him; the looks, the manner, the 
dress, all lead him to make childish inferences. Every human being 
who is permitted to come near and into the life of this child becomes 
its god, its ideal. The adult is a necessary factor in the environment 
of child-life, but not the only factor. When the child comes to the 
kindergarten a new phase of community life presents itself, — children 
like himself entering into similar activities, and abiding under the 
same rational government. 

The kindergarten, with its genetic principles of self-activity, har- 
mony and benevolence, has done much to broaden the conception of 
school work and life, it being the practical demonstration of this ideal 
social community. Its leaven has leavened the whole lump. It has 
aided us in our conceptions of control or discipline, certainly has af- 
fected our courses of study, has lifted our ideas of manual activity 
into consciousness and purpose. 

Shall we not seek, then, to bring the child into a sympathetic rela- 
tionship with his fellows by a harmonious adjustment of the inner 
and external workings of this second great social institution, the school? 

We all answer, "Oh, yes." But again the question comes back, 
"How?" How shall we attain anything like an ideal social life in 
the schoolroom, yielding perfect co-operation in work, which exacts 
personal responsibilities, trains in good habits, and inspires a high 
ideal? How shall this be done? A few schools here and there are 
attempting to solve the problem by making the demands of social life, 
the center of articulation, remembering that the "center of gravity" is 
within the child, and not without. 

In answer to this view the workshops, the sciences, the domestic arts, 
sewing and cooking have found their way into the schoolroom, satis- 
fying too often, simply the utilitarian demand; but, with the introduc- 
tion of such occupations, there appears a marked difference in the gen- 
eral tone spirit and atmosphere of the school, as a result. We must 
of necessity yield to the pressure of the social side of construction or 
manual work. 

This kind of work brings with it buoyant energy as compared with 
the passive recipiency of mere learning; and those who view it from 
the outside say it is worth while because the children are interested 
and therefore spontaneously active, which is all true and valuable, but 
it is the social attitude which has special significance. 

The simple exercises in stick laying, cutting, modeling, sloyd, demand 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 39 

unconsciously o£ the child a recognition of benefit, and so strength of 
mutual co-operation, the necessity for interdependence to obtain the 
product. Each individual recognizes his contribution as a part of a 
whole. It is no longer the selfish "mine," but the altruistic "our." 
The work is no longer individual, exclusive, as must largely be the case 
in the absorption of facts and truths. Dr. Dewey in his new book says: 
"There is no obvious social motive for the acquirement of mere 
learning, there is no social gain. Indeed, almost the only measure for 
success is a competitive one, in the bad sense of that terni, a comparison 
of results in the recitation or in the examination to see which child 
has succeeded in getting ahead of the others in storing up knowledge. 
So thoroughly is this the prevalent atmosphere that for one child to 
help another in his task is a school crime. 

"Where the work consists in simply learning lessons, mutual assist- 
ance, instead of being the most natural form of co-operation and asso- 
ciation, becomes a clandestine effort to relieve one's neighbor of his 
proper duties. 

"Active work, or constructive work, changes this. Helping others, 
instead of being a form of charity, is simply an aid in setting free the 
powers, and furthering the impulses of the one helped. A spirit of 
free communication, of interchange of ideas, suggestions, results — both 
successes and failures — of previous experiences, become the dominating 
note in the recitation. In an informal way the school organizes itself 
on a social basis." 

Naturally it follows that the discipline must be such as will secure 
the results aimed at. It is impossible to conceive of the old order 
as serving this social end. 

The control must grow out of this social community life, must be rel- 
ative to it. 

Our whole conception of school discipline changes when we remem- 
ber that doing — making in this co-operative way has a kind of order, 
or disorder of its own, a confusion or bustle that results from activity; 
iDut it is the hum of this busy, co-ordinate, related life that delights us, 
if we are wise, and the dead silence of the a;ntiquated regime that 
pains us. 

This recognition of social values revises the recitation, and places it 
at another angle. We gain a new view-point. A backward glance 
shows a varied lot — inspirational, dead, mediocre, brilliant, but how 
■often did we consider it an opportunity for social culture? 

Is it not, too often, a place where the child shows off to the teacher 
and classmates the amount of knowledge assimilated? Is knowledge 
■of so much value that courtesy counts for naught? 

Is brilliancy in the few of so much more value to you — to the others^ 
if arrogantly given — than the undisturbed dullness in the undisturbed 
many? 

This brilliancy should minister, to the needs of others, never to the 
exclusion of others. 

The teacher should be the quiet leader, one with them, — the courteous, 
passive, leading spirit, and in the recitation, which is really a social 
meeting place, she can be none other. 

All shoura participate, all should be courteously and respectfully 
heard. What a long stride must be taken here. 

The weak pupil, the timid child, the arrogant maid, the "I don't-care" 
youth, all need social ethics. 

The old method of the recitation was a competitive one, unsocial in 
its tendency. From this other standpoint, it becomes the opportunity 
for communication of ideas, exchange of experiences, clearing away 
wrong conceptions by criticisms and corrections, and giving inspiration 
toward further inquiry. 



40 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

There is free play of the child's social instinct for communicating 
which is preeminently important. Language is primarily a social 
thing. The means by which we receive the experience of others and 
give ours in return. 

Language is closely related — interlaced — with all subjects, and prop- 
erly taught it is a living thing, flexible, formative, functional, whereby 
the child gains consciousness of his own growth, his power. It cannot 
be taught by itself. The child talks readily enough out of school of the 
things that interest him. If vital, living interests are touched in rela- 
tion to human activity, and the creative spirit is expanded and fused 
with these conceptions, he still does so in the school. 

When the language instinct is appealed to in a social way, the natural 
basis still exists, the child has something to talk about, something to 
say, because he has thoughts of his own to express. 

These conversation lessons themselves, growing out of related work, 
take on social habits. The contributions of each, thro' spontaneous ac- 
tivity, strengthens the whole, as manifested in class stories, in word 
collections, both oral and written, as well as in the individual contribu- 
tions upon different phases of the same subject. 

The kindergarten has again come to our rescue, and has lifted us out 
of the prescribed, autocratic method of procedure, in our language 
teaching. 

In its stead, we are learning to lay hold of the communicative im- 
pulses, the desire to talk about things of interest, leading to inquiry 
and research; and the constructive impulse, the desire to make things, 
both useful and artistic. Froebel recognized the great need for organ- 
izing education on a social basis, else why should he place so-much 
stress upon music and the dramatic games, each in their own direct 
way making for unity and strength. 

I like to quote what W. T. Harris says in his preface to Susan Blow's 
"Commentaries of the Mother Play," because he puts in a few words 
what the games mean to us all. He says — "The child, in the plays and 
games — ascends from the world of nature to the world of humanity — 
from the world of things to the world of creative self-activity. In the 
plays and games he becomes conscious of this general or social self. 

"He reproduces the activities and occupations of the world, and by so 
doing he attains a new experience of a higher self thro' thoughts and 
motives which he must have, in order to be in the game what he is to 
reproduce. These games give to the child the treasures of experience 
of the race, solving the problems of life. "They make him wise without 
conceit." 

What games — what activities, are reproduced in the kindergarten? 
All the activities which touch the child life at some point; these are 
the ones chosen, not those foreign to the experience or intelligence of 
the child. 

The child knows something of hoane life, so home-life is presented In 
its various phases. 

Other activities enter into the presentation of that home life: the 
gardener, farmer, miller, baker, grocer, shoemaker, and other trades 
and occupations. 

Industrial activities contribute — clothing, shelter, and the mediums of 
culture. 

All these and more reach the kindergarten child, who enters into it 
all with a zest and earnestness which makes teaching a beautiful, holy, 
sacred thing. 

What does all this signify? Simply, that the child is in and of this 
world of activity; he is in unity with it. and by means of gifts and oc- 
cupations, and dramatic games the various activities are reproduced; 
and he broadens his little horizon and gains a new outlook for the fields 
further on. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 41 

The primary school, rightly imbued with the Froebelian spirit, lays 
hold of the spirit, the geist, underlying this work, and transforms it to 
meet the needs of the growing mind. 

.If we cannot just yet, for practical and social purposes, transform 
some of the occupations, as wood-working, sewing, cutting, into fitting 
work for primary children, we can at least retain the dramatic games. 

Why should we lose entirely the dramatic games if the child's interest 
is strong enough to retain? 

Games are a necessity in the primary school, not the game just as 
played or interpreted in the kindergarten, but its spirit, its life, its 
spontaneity — should be retained, while a richer, wider experience, 
should give it more vitality and expression. 

The necessity for activity, the divine right of childhood, should be 
met and utilized thro' this medium. 

Upon the playground in games and sports, the social organization 
takes place immediately and effectively; so the game itself, whether in- 
door or outdoor, is a social lesson. Reference is here made particularly 
to the game which is the spontaneous outgrowth of related thought. 

Take the story of the Pilgrims, and dramatize it, for instance: A 
number of children are chosen to make the "Mayflower;" others become 
Pilgrim fafhers and mothers. Some are trees. A boy drops down and 
becomes the famous "Plymouth Rock." At once the making of the boat 
becomes a social effort, — the individual one loses himself in the many. 
It is the joining of forces towards a common purpose, and the child 
gains immeasurably through this united effort. 

Facts live through this dramatic play. 

Study a game from a sociologic standpoint, asking yourseK, "What 
effect has it upon the child? What does it bring to him? How does it 
help?" 

Here at least is the opportunity to make the transition from kinder- 
garten to school, welding the two into one natural whole and recogniz- 
ing the fundamental unity underlying both. 

Then there are the festivals — the Spring, Fall, Christmas festivals, 
valuable because they are external manifestations showing the culmina- 
tion of the work and thought during the respective periods. They 
round out the thought of the season in the children's minds. Gives 
them a new respect for the thought — no longer detached, floating, sea- 
weeds; and the actual work done by each and by all enlists the co- 
operative spirit among different groups or classes of children; unifies 
the home and the school, and dignifies both with more warmth and 
vitality. 

I have spoken thus far. though only briefly, of some of the social phases 
of school Iffe — and incidentally of some sociologic tendencies growing 
out of the work itself, but it is my belief that some intentional, directed 
thought-content along sociologic lines, may be given to the children also. 

This subject of human activity is intensely interesting to them — to 
us — because they can bring to it a rich fund of knowledge gained by ac- 
tual experience; and by free and easy talks— and stories, and games 
about those near and common activities, we learn the contents of the 
child minds, and lead them to make other and fuller observations. 

So, in the primary school, we should have conversations, stories, read- 
ings, games, often accompanied by doing or making about the common 
activities, or their types, — dramatizations of the occupations of men 
and women, — construction of railroads, canals, bridges, trolleys, tun- 
nels, etc., in the sand table; lively talks about trades, commerce, manu- 
facture, agriculture, modes of travel and transportation; all such sub- 
jects presented in such measure as fit the capacity of the children. 

The field excursions, the factory visits, are practical, social lessons. 
They not only aid the grasp of geographic work, but clearly define so- 



42 • WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

cial conditions. The study of the activities of your own town, in the 
concrete, living way, is invaluable in establishing relationships and 
starting points for larger view. 

The study of other peoples, finding comparisons of similarities and 
differences comprises geography and sociology at one and the same 
time. 

Something should be attempted with sociologic interests as presented 
in History and Literature as early as the Second grade. 

Can Robinson Crusoe, the Pilgrims, Indians, the great men and noble 
women, heroic deeds of long ago, and the present age, be utilized in an 
incidental fashion to contribute their share in comparative study of 
home environments, activities and pleasures? 

It depends largely upon the skillful presentation of the teacher, that 
none of these subjects become sterile by moralizing. These lessons test 
her power — 

1st. In finding or rather utilizing material at her very door. 

2nd. In retaining in her methods of work the spirit of true social 
advancement, and the ethical value underlying the work. 

But you may ask in a skeptical fashion — "Why should we add this 
to our already well-filled store? What does this phase called sociology 
do for the child?" 

All life is interesting to us and to the children. It is what things 
can do. what individuals can do. what we may do and be, that is vital. 

Human interests are paramount, because we form a part of this great 
social whole. 

Social contact, and rightly directed social content does this for the 
child: • 

It aids him, first of all, to feel that all life activities are closely inter- 
woven, giving him early the knowledge of the law o*' interdependence. 

This is something. When he has learned the great fact of depend- 
ence on others — and the other equally great fact that others depend 
upon him, he has gained victory over selfishness, over conceit, over ar- 
rogance. 

It aids him in the growth of a feeling of respect for others, whatever 
their calling. 

It aids tn the growth of a proper self-respect. 

It aids in the growth of democratic principle, in the nobility of true 
labor. 

It dignifies work and the workman. 

Froebel — 

"The debasing illusion that man works — produces, creates, only in 
order to preserve his body, in order to secure food, clothing and shelter, 
may have to be endured, but should not be diffused and propagated. 

"Primarily and in truth man works to reveal his spiritual essence." 

Long ago, when the world was young, the dominant note in existence 
was purely self-regarding, but gradually through the slow process of 
evolution was purely self -regarding, but gradually through the slow 
process of evolution it is coming to be othe? -regarding. 

The children learn that honor lies only in serving our fellow men; 
that all serve; and through and ivith them then we may soon attain the 
divine harmony, the fullness of joy, rendered through service. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 43 



LITERARY READING IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 



MAE E. SCHKEIBER. 

In many of the high schools of today it is the practice to take a piece 
of literature — usually a "college requirement," and spend weeks in dis- 
secting it. A poem like "Snow Bound" is analyzed until there isn't a 
shred of it left. The meaning of every word is traced, even to its deri- 
vation; the figures are all pointed out and named, and the pupil duly 
impressed that he could not have said it that way; and the versification 
studied. The geography is "looked up" on the map, the history veri- 
fied, the accuracy of the science tested and allusions traced. Even 
grammar is not neglected, for the sentences are analyzed and the words 
parsed. 

And this process is called literary reading. It is neither literary, 
nor is it reading, for the great pieces of literature have not lived be- 
cause they furnish great field for mental gymnastics, but because they 
reveal the deepest, the truest, the most beautiful and the best in life. 

The poet steps to the window and, pointing to the beautiful landscape 
without, he says: Look. Look at this tree; see that garden and the 
bit of sky beyond. O, the beautiful coloring! Can you smell the ap- 
ple blossoms? Do you hear those birds sing? 'Tis indeed a world of 
beauty! And I, the student, bound to know things, with scarce a 
glance, say: O, yes; but my eyes are fixed on the glass. Is it plate 
glass or common glass? Of what materials is it made? Where do the 
materials come from? What are the uses of glass, etc., etc.? Is not 
this what the student is doing who spends his time in literature in 
text study? Again the poet says: "Come to my garuen and I will show 
you its beauties. For Spring is in my garden fair, and the spirit of 
love is everywhere. See the snow drops, and the violets with warm 
rain wet, and the wind flowers and the tulips tall. Here are my nar- 
cissi, the fairest among them all. And the Naiad-like lily of the val- 
ley — whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale. Yonder, those hya- 
cinths, purple, and white and blue. Their odor is like music — so deli- 
cate, soft, and intense. Just smell the jassamine faint — and the sweet- 
est flower for scent that blows — the tuberose! O, all the rare blossoms 
of every clime are in my garden fair! See the sunlight as it flickers 
on the stream with a golden and green light. And listen as the soft 
stream glides and dances with a motion of sweet sound. 

"See the plumed insects swift and free, 
Like golden boats on a sunny sea." 

And as he tells me in ecstacy of the beauties of his garden, his lan- 
guage falls in rythmic beats. And I, the student, because I must know 
— I trample down the turf. I dig up the plants to see how they grow. 
I pull the beautiful blossoms from their stems — never mind their beauty 
of form, and color, and odor. I must know their secrets. I tear them 
to pieces, I count, I classify, I know. "All is massed into the common 
clay." And when I am done, look at the ruin and havoc in the once 
beautiful garden. The poet mourns, "Oh, my beautiful garden!" and I, 
the student,— I see no beauty — I know. Know what? The trivialities. 
For the mystery and beauty of life are just as far away as ever. And 
this is what the teacher and student are doing and calling it literature. 



44 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

" The way they teach literature in colleges is calculated to kill any love 
for it that one may happen to have before he goes to them. It seems 
to me I would lose my love of Shakespeare if I had to dissect him, and 
find out the meaning of every word and expression. I want to ride 
buoyantly over the waves. I want to feel the wind and the motion — 
not talk about them. If I had to teach literature, I hardly know myself 
how I would do it. You can't by bearing on — you can't by mere intel- 
lectual force on a book show its charm. It appeals to the emotions. 
You've got to approach it in a different way. You must be fluid. All 
I should hope to do would be to give the student the key to the best 
literature. We would read books together. We would read good books 
and we would read poor books. I would say, 'Well, we won't talk: we'll 
read and see. Here's a poor book — don't you see? It's overdrawn — 
't isn't delicate.' I would get at books in their sentiment and general 
character, not in their details. If you tear it all into bits, you haven't 
the thing itself any more." — John Burroughs. 

Literature is an expression of life and the study of literature should 
be the interpretation of the things of life. We can not learn any one 
thing in life once and for all. Our lives are spent in constantly un- 
learning and readjusting, as we grow in knowledge, experience and feel- 
ing. So the folly of trying to have the pupils get all there is in a piece 
of literature at any one time — no matter how long. The student can. 
only understand and feel by the assistance of what he has already ex- 
perienced, felt, and learned. He can only assimilate new ideas by means 
of his present ones. Every new relation of the ideas helps to correct, 
clear, and extend the meaning, and instead of trying to get the whole 
meaning in its one relation, read on, getting at truth in its different 
relations, and deepening and enriching experience at the same time. 
Then the pupil reads his own life into literature and gets inspiration 
and uplift. 

In the study of literature, the child is taught how to read. In Lit- 
erary Readings he puts these methods into wider practice. This prac- 
tice forms the habit of reading, makes him familiar with books, and 
skillful in their use. Scudder says: "There can be no manner of 
question that between the ages of six and sixteen a large part of the best 
literature of the world can be read." Which means that in the grades 
as well as in the high school this cursory reading must be carried on. 
Cursory reading does not mean skimming through a book and throwing 
it aside with no future thought — it means rapid reading to get the pith 
and point — which implies ^kill in the right way of reading and in the use 
of books. 

These cursory Literary Readings should include all lines of reading 
and follow and lead the pupils' interests as far as possible. The reci- 
tations should consist of reports on what has been read and these re- 
ports should be oral. The recitation ought to be an exchange of im- 
pressions and feelings, a talking over what has been found enjoyable, 
good, beautiful, and helpful. The pupil makes his report as a contribu- 
tion to the whole and stands ready to answer questions by his class- 
mates and teachers; to discuss with them what he has found; and to 
compare his judgments with theirs. Thus all take part in the reci- 
tations, and attention is secured. , 

It is not necessary — or desirable, that all read and report on the same 
book or different books on the same subject. All children are not in- 
terested in tTie same things and tastes differ. It is not best to have re- 
ports every day — a period of 40 minutes, or an hour, set aside twice a 
week for each class is sufficient. The teacher should prepare lists of 
books, which are in the library, in the various lines of reading, from 
■which pupfls may select. She will have to read from the standpoint of 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 45 

the pupil to find what is interesting and valuable. She cannot guide 
iis reading unless she makes a careful study of his interests and needs. 
What interested him in this story? Can I use that interest to lead him 
to the reading of another and perhaps a better book? The recitation 
should give the teacher the opportunity to lead the pupil from the inter- 
est of today to higher and wider interests by creating new interests, 
and enable her in every step to utilize interests gained in other lines of 
work. 

Many teachers are afraid of cursory reading. 'Tis something new in 
school. The "good old way" is so easy to examine and mark, the lesson 
can be exact. She feels more sure of herself, for that is the way she 
was taught. But how about the busy men and women — in their rush 
for a living? What are they reading? Those children with whom 
she spent ten weeks on Snow Bound? Do they read in the "good old 
-way?" They never imagined even then that it was reading — it was "lit- 
erature." And when the last poem was analyzed and the last examina- 
tion passed, they were thro' with "literature." And the pity of it is be- 
cause it was so thoroughly done they have never opened their books 
since and have a distaste for what they imagine is literature. 

But all men and women and children, no matter how busy, are inter- 
ested in life — they are living it — and with literature taught as an in- 
terpretation of life, skill gained in getting life out of books quickly and 
readily, a habit formed of reading — men, women, and children will turn 
to books for pleasure, knowledge, recreation, and uplift. 



46 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



ELECTIVE COURSES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL. 



MARY C. HOLT. 

In haste to set the educational world aright before night should fall 
on the Nineteenth Century, the teachers with intense earnestness have 
from time to time turned to the light every phase of our school system. 
In the course of this energetic renovating process, curriculums or 
courses of study have received a thorough overhauling. Here, as in all 
other reforms, we find extreme views held. There are those who be- 
lieve that we should have only one prescribed course of study, which 
every child should take. These extremists disregard entirely the capa- 
bilities of tlie child and would treat strong and weak alike to the same 
mental diet, forgetting that what is meat for one, may be poison for 
another. To say that one course of study should be prescribed for every 
pupil in our High Schools, seems manifestly absurd; as Dr. Eliot has^ 
said, "No human wisdom is equal to contriving a prescribed course of 
study equally good for even two children of the same family between 
the ages of eight and eighteen. Direct revelation from on high would 
be the only satisfactory basis for a uniform prescribed school curricu- 
lum. The immense deepening and expanding of human knowledge in 
the nineteenth century and the increasing sense of the sanctity of the 
individual's gifts and will power, have made uniform prescriptions of 
study in secondary schools impossible and absurd. We must absolutely 
give up the notion that any set of human beings, however wise and 
learned, can ever again construct and enforce on school children one 
uniform course of study." This much, it seems to me, will be ad- 
mitted by all who have had experience in the school room: that every 
child shoura not be obliged to follow one uniform course of study. 

Granted, then, that there is to be some choice in the matter, the ques- 
tion at once arises — How far shall the pupil be allowed to exercise this 
choice? Here the great body of educators divides. 

A few have the temerity to say that all studies should be elective, 
while the great majority believe that there should be a set of constants 
and a set of electives in every course; which is practically the condition 
in our schools today. Some, perhaps, are thinking that few High. 
School courses offer electives, but it is only necessary to point out that 
there is practically no difference between a large number of courses 
with no electives and a small number of courses with electives in each.. 

For example, there is a High School in the state having an Ancient 
Classical and a Modern Classical course, these being two of the seven 
courses offered by this school. The only difference between the Ancient 
Classical course and the Modern Classical course is that in the former 
Greek is substituted for German in the third and fourth years. Why 
not combine these two into one course, called the Classical, having 
Greek and German elective in the third and fourth years? Is there any 
difference, pray? "Elective Courses" then and "Courses with Electives" 
amount to the same thing. We must bear in mind that a school may 
offer five or six courses and yet these courses may differ from each other 
by a single subject only, or at the most by two or three. Under this- 
method, pupils of the same grade, pursuing the same subject, are taught 
as if all belonged to the same course and are separated only in the sub- 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 47 

jects which differentiate the courses. Hence a system of elective 
courses, I repeat, results finally in elective subjects. 

If now these expressions are understood, we will return to the ques- 
tion, "How much liberty shall be allowed in choosing High School 
work?" Shall we do away with all curriculums or courses of study, 
making all subjects elective? The affirmative is argued by some of the 
leading minds in the profession today. In 1895, Dr. Samuel Thurber 
agitated the question and succeeded in arousing controversy, yet un- 
ended. 

Dr. Nightengale of Chicago is a firm believer in the principle of all 
electives and loses no opportunity of taking up its defense. The most 
active advocate at the present time is Dr. Eliot, President of Harvard 
College. From introducing a few electives into the college course, the 
plan widened into making the last two years of the college course al- 
most or entirely elective. Greater freedom also in the choice of studies 
is allowed in me first two years of the college course; finally, large elec- 
tives are allowed in the admission requirements, this of course making 
possible election of studies in secondary schools. 

But because it is practicable and possibly a good thing that a college 
course should be wholly elective, are, we to infer that an all-elective 
High School course is to be desired or allowed? If so, is it not logical 
to suppose that the principle of election will be and ought to be carried 
into the grades? The kindergarten teacher then will ask the child 
whether he wants to cut paper or mould clay, thus drawing out the 
"innate talent" of the chil'd. But what if the child answers that he 
wants to chew gum, the innate talent for which seems to be present in 
most children? What will the teacher do then, poor thing? 

"That the educational value of a study is to be based upon the innate 
talent for and the time devoted to that study" is a pretty theory biit 
what a cond'ition confronts us! The advocates of this theory must as- 
sume that special aptitudes of the child are already manifest from the 
beginning. The all-elective system seems to be designed, since it edu- 
cates a child according to his special bent, to assist nature in the devel- 
ment of freaks. If a child is born "long" for instance in Greek, he is 
to be given Greek until he develops into a Greek monstrosity, long in 
Greek, but "short" in everything else. Dr. White says, "Since inclina- 
tion is assumed to be in the direction of natural ability or aptitude, it 
follows that no youth should be required to do what he does not like lo 
do. In the light of this philosophy, the professional tramp may be de- 
fined as a man born short except in stomach and legs." 

Mr. Tarver's remarks on this point seem to me too good to pass. "To 
allow a boy to neglect mathematics at an early age because he is 
thought to have a special bent toward classics, that is to say, because 
mathematics are troublesome to him, is to do him as serious intellectual 
injury as to do the converse. Obviously to let him off the subjects 
which are difficult to him is absurd ; it is as ridiculous as if a gymnastic 
instructor were to say, 'This boy has a small and weak chest; I will, 
therefore, in his case omit all exercises which tend to strengthen and 
expand the chest.' " 

This system was aptly characterized in an after dinner speech, the 
other evening, as the Homeopathic system of education. "Similia 
similibus curantur." If the boy likes mathematics, give him mathema- 
tics from t"5e cradle up and what a wonderful mathematician we may 
have! and the speaker added, "What a miserable man!" 

We have long been told that an individual should know something of 
everything and everything of something. The all-elective course will 
certainly do away with half of the requirement. Under this system the 
student may indeed know everything of something, but what if the 
rapid changes in our civilization make his something of no account? 



48 



WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



He is out of the race, then, of no use to society, his carefully won spe- 
cial education all a mistake — a failure, if we accept, as we must, suc- 
cess as the crucial test. 

Specialization in education should not be hastened. The man who is 
doing great things in any line is the man whose broad education has 
revealed his capabilities. How does the child know what he likes until 
he has tried some of these studies. The pupils come into the High 
School wfth exceedingly crude ideas not only as to what is best for 
them, but as to what they like. If the mathematics teacher happens 
to be better looking than the science teacher, undoubtedly there will be 
a rush into the mathematics classes. To quote again from Dr. White: 
"The assumption that interest is a safe guide in education is sadly 
jostled by the well known fact that human interest is subject to very 
sudden and radical changes. As we climb the ladder of human exper- 
ience, we are constantly leaving the successive rounds of interest be- 
hind us." 

Again, the advocates of the all-elective system for the High School 
assert that the character of the study is a small matter compared with 
the stimulating skill of the teacher. If so, there are no indispensable 
studies; equally well taught, all subjects are of equal worth. Would the 
study of Volupiik under the most skillful teacher be worthy of a place 
on our programs? Certainly not, — the studyNis worthless. Some stud- 
ies then are better than dthers. Is there any one who would formulate 
a course of study without English? No, we are forced to the conclu- 
sion that some studies are indispensable. This theory that all subjects 
are equivalent in educational rank was first set forth, I believe, in the 
report of tlie Committee of Ten; yet President Baker has taken the 
trouble to add that the majority of the committee rejected the theory 
of equivalence of studies for general education, "believing that such a 
theory ignores Philosophy, Psychology, and the Science of Education." 
The work of primary and secondary schools is to give a general view in 
all directions. Nor does the Report on College Entrance Requirements 
sanction the theory, as some believe, but distinctly withholds such 
sanction. In their Sixth Resolution, the Committee says in substance: 

"While recognizing the principle of large liberty to the students in 
the secondary schools, the committee does not believe in an unlimited 
election, but especially emphasizes the importance of a certain number 
of constants in all secondary schools." 

It is our duty, then, to find out what studies are indispensable and 
these will form the constants in our curriculums. The whole matter is 
brought down to this: In place of one uniform course of study, we are 
to have election, but we do not believe in the all-elective system for sec- 
ondary schools. Certain studies are essential to all courses. This is 
the stand taken by the Committee on College Entrance Requirements. 

More freedom in election perhaps is desirable in some schools but the 
present system of partial electives has not only the support of past; ex- 
perience but the approval of the great majority of educators today. 
We are not indeed beyond the need of change — but a change to an all- 
elective course seems to be a step backward. The crying need of the 
present is not for a change in the subjects taught, but for a change in 
the manner of teaching. We forget in the weary grind of daily toll 
that we are working with souls. The rigid teacher, not the rigid course 
of study, hampers the growth of the individual's god-given powers. 
More "sweetness and light" in the soul of the teacher means more 
"sweetness and light" in the life of the pupil. 






44 {S it^ \0 \p,_ iw 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 49 



SCIEI^TIFIC AND PRACTICAL CHILD STUDY. 



FREDERICK E. BOLTON. 

Child stuSy is often designated as a "fad," but it conforms to none 
of the definitions of a "fad." It is not a trifling pursuit but the noblest 
endeavor of all who deserve the name of teacher or parent. Child- 
study is almost as broad as education and certainly no one will decry 
education as a fad. Many of the means of education often take the 
direction (3f fads, i. e.. become hobbies or become trifling in nature, but 
education is the most serious question, the most significant question 
that has ever occupied, or ever will occupy the minds of intelligent 
humanity. Certain methods 01 child-study, such as tne questionnaire 
method, the anthropometric method, etc., may develop into fads, but 
the study of children must enter into the consideration of every edu- 
cational question. This is true as regards both means and methods. 
Education may be reduced to two ultimate questions: (a) What shall 
the child learn, and (b) what are the best means for attaining the 
desired ends? And we must look to the child in answering either. 

Child-study, unfortunately, has come into disrepute largely because 
so many dilettantes without scientific training or insight are carrying 
out so-called investigations in the name of science and publishing 
to the worfd the worthless results of their puerile efforts. Many of 
this type of investigators hunt only for abnormalties, or unusual 
sayings and doings of children, with no other end in view than the 
hope of contributing an article on some new and startling topic. Then 
many others with perfectly good intentions, through imitation, pursue 
similar methods in the belief that they are aiding the cause of science. 
The results of such misdirected efforts are published and people rightly 
denominate it "stuff and nonsense," but also wrongly denounce all 
child-study as worthless and the outcome of a fad. Often jnuch valu- 
able time is worse than wasted in the attempt to produce something 
new. To quote Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler: "Much of modern so- 
called scientific work is really unscientific. It has no beginning and 
no end, and is, so far, just as wasteful and enervating as would be 
the attempt to count the leaves of the trees of Maine or the sands 
of the desert of Sahara. * * * Hundreds of so-called investigators 
all over the world are frittering away their time and wasting private 
and public funds in their incessant desire to do something that means 
nothing." Ed. Rev., Oct. 1898, 283. But the foregoing does not apply 
to child-study and education alone. It is equally applicable to the in- 
vestigations in any other branch of knowledge. But just as abortive 
attempts may be cited from researches in History, Geology, Philology, 
Chemistry and other sciences, yet we hear little just now of any fads 
except from the child-study side. I wonder whether the decrying of 
child-study has not also become a fad? The main reason why so much 
is heard about fads in education is because no other subject comes 
so close to_ the intelligence and interests of so large a mass of hu- 
manity. Education concerns not only the teacher, but the child, the 
adolescent, the parent, the family, the community-society. It is more 
vitally connected with the present and future welfare of mankind than 
any other phase of human endeavor. 



50 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

Another reason why child-study has been so much derided is be- 
cause ne^ple have expected more from it than it was able to give or 
thev had a right to expect. There has ever been too little cliscnmina- 
Uon Setween the wor? attempted by the specialist and that by the 
novice But a few cynics in high places, who ought to discriminate 
better have taken tie disappointing or worthless results as a cue 
for the epithets and anathemas that they deljght in hurling at the 
whole subject. Uninformed persons take up the cry and denounce it 
without investigation. Thus, the study is deprived of many practi- 
cal wmU^^who might materially aid the cause in a practical way. 

From the'scientific standpoint child-study is almost synonymous with 
eeneti" psvchology. It includes an examination of all processes of 
fhange Jr metamorphosis through which the various mental powers 
havfpassed in reaching the status they possess in the ^'Tarlous n e" 
of civilized races. It seeks not only knowledge of the \anous intel 
Lcti I emotional and volitional phenomena, but t also -seeks he 
genesis of these in the human race. With this in view child psycho.- 
Srrequires for its complete understanding not only the study of the 
charrc?eristics of children, but also a study of adolescent adult, and 
senescent life; not only man but the lower animals, in so far as such 
a study can throw any light upon the present psychical life o^ ^^an 
Thus we see that child-study in a wide sense secures a gieat deal 
of data secured from biology, embryology, anthropology, medicine so- 
ciology religion and ethics, as well as that from physiology psychology 
and pelagogv,-in short, it includes everything that goes to make up 
?he sclenS of human life. To illustrate the broad scope of the sub- 
ject I mav instance the work done at Clark Tniversity which is gen- 
eral'lv supposed to stand for child-study. Yet one seldom hears the 
word child-study there. The work is carried on with this broader con- 
ception every student in the philosophical department being required 
to do work in biology, anthropolgy, psychology and philosophy no mat- 
ter what his course may be. Unfortunately the entire work is often 
judged (misjudged) by the syllabi that emanate from there. The syl- 
labi show neither the beginning nor the end and are only incidental 
features which it is hoped will contribute something to the topic un- 
der consideration. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do not. As in 
all scientific research there is fruitful and fruitless work. Unfortu- 
nately for the science, the entire work is usually judged by these in- 
cidental features alone. This is pardonable because those who do so 
are usually those without scientific training and insight and they arc 
not willing to wait. They do not understand the vast amount of de- 
tail and drudgery that must be done in every department of scientific 
research The lavman is looking for practical results and we cannot 
blame him, but we mav offer by way of explanation that the practical 
results do not necessarily form an integral part of the scientist's work. 
If he happens upon some practical applications and chooses to give 
them to IHe world, it is well, but if not it indicates no lack of sci- 
ence Science means organized knowledge, but before any science is 
established It must collect— collect— and the process is sometimes in- 
terminable. Darwin collected material for thirty years before he was 
ready to give the world any generalized results. We must remember 
that'psvchologv itself is a comparatively new science and we must 
not expect too great immediate results. If you will notice, you will 
find that it is the dilettante in child-study who is most ready to give 
you generalizations. The more scientific exhibit greater caution and 
less dogmatism. 

From the practical side child-study ought to be concerned with the 
recognition and application of all principles relating to the care and 
training of children. These principles may have been gleaned from 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 51 

child psychology, from general psychology, from medicine, or any other 
science, or they may have been reached by purely empirical methods. 
But it must be remembered that child-study in the school or in the 
home is concerned with the practical way of dealing with children 
and not with the advancement of scfence, as such. The study is pri- 
marily for the sake of the child, secondarily for the sake of the teacher, 
and incidentally for the sake of science. 

From the teacher's standpoint I believe that the details of the scien- 
tific side of child-study form little or no part of his work. The domi- 
nant interest of the teacher is not in the theoretical consideration 
of the science, but in the practical application that can be made of the 
well-formulated principles in teaching. The schoolroom is not the 
place for scientific experimentadon on children and the teacher is not 
»ssentially an experimenter. It is well if the teacher has had scien- 
tific training in this line and has gained scientific insight, but the 
schoolroom is essentially a place for carrying into execution well formu- 
lated principles. 

The sooner teachers and parents learn that th6 function of child- 
study in the home is primarily for the good of the child, secondarily 
for the good of the teacher or parent in increasing insight and sym- 
pathy, and only incidentally for the science, the better it will be for 
schools and homes and for the reputation of the science. 

The rank and file of teachers and parents ought not to expect to 
add much to science by their observations of children. The results that 
properly accrue from such observation ought to be attended with a 
greater interest in children, a more intelligent understanding of them, 
and better methods of dealing with them, but to expect anything of 
scientific value is delusive, and leaders in the movement ought not to 
hold out such expectations as an inducement. 

In physics we need men of science to formulate theories concerning 
light, sound, etc., but there is no less a demand for skilled operators 
of the telegraph, the telephone, and the electric lighting plants. Both 
classes are necessary but the work of the two though related is en- 
tirely distinct. Analogically the same is true of child psychology or 
any other psychology. The scientist views the subject from the stand- 
point of science alone. He studies the phenomena as they are and 
not with reference to the use they may subserve. However, since edu- 
cation looks to psychology for its laws the teacher expects that every 
psychological law must yield a corresponding pedagogical principle. 
Nothing is more erroneous. Just as vain would be the expectation 
that from itne formulation of every physical law a new machine could 
be constructed, or from every chemical reaction a new medicine or 
lotion coul'd be compounded, or from every historical fact a new rule 
of action could be formulated for everyday conduct. 

We have no right to expect so much. The words of Prof. Sully con- 
cerning psychology are here applicable. In the preface to his Outlines 
of Psychology, he says: 

"If a teacher approaches the study of mental science with the sup- 
position tliat it is going to open up to him a short and easy road to 
his professional goal, he will be disappointed. Such an expectation 
would show that his mind had not clearly seized the relation between 
science ancT^ art, theoretic and practical science. The first condition 
of such a theory is a mass of traditional knowledge gained by expe- 
rience or trial and observation. This empirical knowledge is all th.at 
the practitfoner (physician, teacher, etc.) has in the early stages of his 
art. And with respect to the practical details of the art it must al- 
ways confinue to be the main sources of guidance. The best method 
of bandaging a limb, and the best way to teach Latin are largely mat- 
ters to be determined by experience. The function of scientific trutli 



52 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

in relation to art or practice is briefly to give us a deeper insight into 
the nature of our work and the conditions under which it is neces- 
sarily carried on. Thus mental science enlarges the teacher's notion 
of education by showing him what a complex thing a human mind 
is, in how many ways it may grow, how influences must combine for 
its full exercise, and how variously determined in its growth by in- 
dividual nature. It further furnishes him with wide principles or 
maxims, which, though of less immediate practical value than the nar- 
rower rules gained by experience, are a necessary supplement to these. 
By connecting the empirical rule with one of these scientific princi- 
ples, he is in position to understand it, to know why it succeeds la 
certain cases and fails in others." 

Nevertheless, child psychology has proven its right to exist. The re- 
sults, though not all that have been expected from some quarters, are 
still of sufficient importance to justify its study with greater diligence 
than ever. The results are undoubtedly far greater than its opponents 
would be wflling to admit. I shall not attempt a summary of all the 
beneficial results but shall mention briefly a few of the more signifi- 
cant and well demonstrated ones: 

1. In the first place it is perfectly evident that never before in the 
history of the world has there been such a healthful interest in the 
cause of education as there is today. People in the great nations of 
the world are bending their energies toward providing better means 
of education for their children. Especially in the United States it 
is true that the most beautiful and expensive buildings in many sec- 
tions of the country are the school buildings. There is great expendi- 
ture of money for the purpose of providing the best in education from 
the kindergarten through the university. Where one family sent "Iheir 
children to college fifty years ago, ten do now. Again, the number 
of organizations and institutions built up for the purpose of further- 
ing the cause of education is almost innumerable. Witness the multi- 
tude of mot"hers' clubs, mothers' congresses, women's school alliances, 
women's leagues for better sanitation in school buildings, teachers' 
clubs, associations and reading circles, the increase and improvement 
of public libraries, traveling libraries, extension courses, correspondence 
courses, the multiplication of sewing schools, cooking schools, schools 
of domestic science, etc. To simply enumerate would occupy many 
pages. The free lectures given by the Board of Education in New York 
City within the last ten years have been wonderful agencies in the 
cause of education. During the year 1896-7 there were given 1,066 
free lectures upon educational topics to the working people. The fact 
that 426,357 persons attended them speaks unequivocally of their popu- 
larity. Educational literature is growing more abundant every day. 
None of the popular magazines, even of the purely literary type, can 
get along now without one or more articles upon current educational 
topics in each number. Even the daily papers in many cities give 
considerable space to educational questions. I noticed in Sunday's 
Sentinel that of twenty mayors of Wisconsin cities, who indicated what 
their city would like in a Christmas stocking, eleven of them named 
improvement in school facilities. These men are all business men, 
not pedagogues, and the answers are very significant. It shows that 
the people are deeply interested in the cause of education, and that 
they are studying the interests of their children. 

There are at present fourteen state organizations for child-study, 
sixty city associations, and more than three hundred local clubs. 
Fifteen colleges have chairs of child-study. It has even secured a 
footing in conservative Oxford and Edinburgh, each of which furnish 
lecturers upon the subject. It has found its way into India, China, 
Japan, and the Hawaiian Islands. Thousands of young mothers and 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99, 53 

fathers are studying their offspring with minutest care and making 
records of everything they deem important. (Of course this is not in- 
considerable! ) Most of this is of no scientific value, but it is an index 
of increased interest in and knowledge about children. 

Throughout the country there are no less than 160,000 women (ex- 
clusive of teachers) actively engaged in some form of enterprise look- 
ing directly toward the betterment of educational methods and facili- 
ties. These women are among the leading women of their respective 
communities. This work takes various directions. Some of it is in 
mothers' clubs and mothers' meetings, others in parents' and teachers* 
meetings. In some, child-study as ordinarily thought of is the central 
topic, in others the kindergarten, foods and their relative values and 
modes of preparation, general health, sleep, fatigue, home lessons, care 
of teeth, care of body, clothing, exercise, tobacco, schoolroom sanita- 
tion, schoolroom decoration, manners, morals, etc., are considered. 
Though much of the work is desultory and lacking in point, yet it all 
contributes toward a closer bond of sympathy between home and school, 
and anything that will further this end is highly desirable. 

It may be presumptions to claim all this as the direct outcome of 
recent child-study. It may be better to say as the modern historians 
are coming to do, that no one factor is a sufficient cause for any great 
movement, but that the spirit of the movement is "in the air." But 
it is certain that interest in education in the larger sense is the dom- 
inant cause of all the activity. And I think it is not^ too much to say 
that a great deal /of enthusiasm has been kindled by the newer child- 
study and that a very significant advance is synchronous with its ad- 
vent. You may say that the questionnaire has not accomplished it, 
the scales and balance have not accomplished it, optical and auditory- 
tests have not accomplished it. However, each has given its quota 
through the results it revealed, and all have contributed to the greater 
interest in the child as the future heir of the present has accomplished 
it. By the various methods we have been enabled to know more In- 
timately his possibilities, his points of strength, and his shortcomings. 
All have stimulated toward bettering means of developing his possi- 
bilities. 

I now pass to some of tue results more directly concerned with school 
work. Not all of the results I shall mention are universally heeded, 
but all have been well demonstrated by child-study. 1. Careful study 
has shown us that good school work can be accomplished only when 
hygienic surroundings are suitable. To insure this, great care must 
be given to heating, lighting, ventilation, seating, etc. But arrange- 
ments have not been determined upon in some of these directions, but 
that their importance is recognized is a long step in advance. 

2. The value of play has long been recognized in the kindergarten, 
but we are only awakening to the fact that well regulated play has a 
place and is a distinct educational factor in all grades of school. 

3. We now recognize that mental development is not uniformly con- 
tinuous, but occurs by stages and varies greatly at different times as 
does physical growth. 

4. It is now recognized that there are nascent periods in human de- 
velopment, — periods when the mind is most open to certain infiuences. 
It has been shown that most religious conversions occur between 15 
and 17 years of age. There are nascent periods for play, and also 
for various classes of studies. This is of prime pedagogical impor- 
tance. If a nascent period passes without being taken advantage of, 
a golden opportunity is lost. Prof. James says: "If a boy grows up 
alone at fhe age of games and sports and learns neither to play ball, 
nor row, nor sail, nor ride, nor skate, nor fish, nor shoot, probably 
he will be sedentary to the end of his days. In all pedagogy the great 



5^ WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

thing is to strike the iron whiie J^' Atforrtt'eb^rhaTJoU'- ^ThL" 
I^rs interest in each successive ^^b^^ect be ore the e^^ ^^^.^^ ^^^^^ 

is a happy moment for fixing ^^/^^^^^^.^f ^rssectors and botanists la 
lectors in natural bi^tory and 1 f f^f^^^.g^^ched, and unless the topic • 
each of us a saturation point ^^ soon le ^^^ ^,^tg 

he one associated with som_e ";g^^t Phonal need .^^_ ^^^ 

constantly whetted about ^,t. ^^^^^^^^g fresh and instinctive, with- 
on what we learned ^'t^e"„,7,'. "'^^Yf^eir own business, the ideas gamed 
out adding to the store. Ojit^'^^^^J^/.^'^re practically the only ideas 
bv men before the age o^™ Thev cannJt get anything new. To 
they Shall lave in their /-'^f^^ J,,^/ .eadiness for the subject is, then, 
detect the moment of ^t^e mf mrtn e e j^ ^ y vol. II. 

the first duly of every educatoi P[i^- ^J^ -j^^t physical and mental 
5. We now have wel ^^J^^'^f^^^J^^^^^^ to the accessory. The 
development proceed from ^^^^l'^^^^^^ much earlier than 

older, larger, ^impler, and stablei organs ^^^^^^ organs. It is 

the finer, more recent. ^^^^^^^^^'Sies The knowledge of this has 
true of both muscular and ^euia tissues^ involves the use 

caused teachers to give \^^^l^ ^f i^f finei ones. Formerly children m 
of the larger muscles ^^^^ead of the finei on ^^^. ^^^ ^-ork 

the kindergarten were S^^^^/J^^^f 1 °fis ^.gre made to do fine writ- 

„eU!lf a;^'1SSr;r,L'r.oo?ru.?s \r t.e ™.e ps^CCCca. 

and physiological Programs ^ ^^ ^q ^ ^.^ from 

The best period of the day is touna xo period. No thought- 

8 to 4 the next best, and from ^^ ^o 12 the ^o^s^^e ^^ ^^ ^^.^ ^^^^^^ 
ful and ^-ell-informed teacher .^ould P^^ce ™"^,^,i, ^^ ^s good as a 
if avoidable. The old adage that ^ J^f ^e^t ^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^ 

rest is no longer held "%^''*'';^^,t ^^^ f t^lfe tbe place of rest-absolute 
no substitution of work for ^^«^^^,^^,^"„^„fbe undertaken directly after 
rest. Even physical exercise ho^Ud^^not^^be^u^^^^^^ nervous force 

severe mental labor, rn^sicai *^')^'^ . , attention is simply 

and to substitute such exercise 'iemanding dose attentio^^ ^^ 

increasing the burden ^^^^/''yj\^^'. at umes require to go through 

times; the whole of ^e .^^°^>' ^tf/^,^ ^^J/exSit^^^^^^ of force that can 
a period of Q^iet nutrition without an> expena^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ 

^^^k :^^r:^^. ^K^^-f LtfuLss are negative. 

of Children, p. 248. ^v,..rci,.ai tminin'' tends to improve the 

8. "It has be™ showi, that PJl^.^^m™; Amoving .lisorderllnes, 

l^'?^tl^^:Z^ ^:iS^'i^^ - 0. Kroh^n, «. St. 
''t 8wMi«dy ha. Shown .hat, "A pertect idea a,..y. '^^=i';^S'" 
^'ro^^.Safihrrorfchn<,^ ^Jl'Xo^^'^rZiL^^ .s towa.. im.. 
*n'rTh« ■■HahiU.'fi actions are most powertul InWMtors o, move^ 

meits wffloh do pot tend in 'J„^/>™ //fo '".^ ''iiowed down to 
Touthtul habits of the right kind should not oe i 
Ine field. Too much specialization m early youth can have oniy 
cerebral results." Ibid. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 55 

12. Child-study has shown the significance of the relation between 
physical and moral education. Judicious physical training will do more 
for moral education than all the lectures on moral science of a New 
England college professor. With the encouragement of properly di- 
rected athletic sports the old-time college pranks and hazings have 
nearly disappeared. The effects upon younger pupils is also very ap- 
parent. 

13. Methods of training the feeble minded have been much improved. 
Instead of beginning with abstract mental training, some form of phys- 
ical exercises are first given to develop voluntary muscular control and 
to develop attention. From fundamental is here, also the order of pro- 
cedure. 

14. "Observation of children has certainly contributed to the science 
of education something in regard to the teaching of morality. Such 
observations have shown that those who try to teach morality by mere 
-word of mouth waste their efforts." R. P. Halleck in Jour, of Ed. 
All sentiments about right doing must end in action if the result is to 
"be permanent. The teacher must furnish opportunity for right doing, 
as well as to point out what is desirable and what is undesirable. 

1.5. The strongest potential capacity of the child is for action. 

16. It has been well established that myopia is increased by school 
occupations. Tests made by Dr. Max Cohn of Breslau and repeated 
by many otlier observers, establish the fact that myopia increases from 
grade to grade. The proportion varies in different countries, but the 
trouble is, to say the least, most alarming. The causes are many and 
■various. Insufficient light, glaring light, bad print, bad atmosphere, 
over-study, and bad position in writing all contribute their quota to 
the alarming results. The conditions all point to a necessity in re- 
•adjustment of present school curricula. 

17. As a final point I would indicate that the modern study of edu- 
cational problems has very clearly demonstrated to us that the period 
of adolescence is a period requiring great tact and caution on the part 
of educators. It is the great period of readjustment. Often children 
take on entirely new physical characteristics. Up to this period they 
may have resembled one parent and now they change in features so as 
to resemble the other. What is true of physical characteristics is no 
less true of mental. The entire temperament often undergoes complete 
change at fhis age. It is the period when old interests die out and 
•entirely new ones replace them. It is a period of great unrest; boys 
often run away from home, and girls become giddy and wild. There 
is great desire to get out and see the world and to do battle for them- 
selves. It is the great period for doubt, for argumentation, debate, 
and sophistry. Boys organize debating societies and tend to argue 
every question with their elders. Most religious conversions occur at 
this age. It is the age of initiation into crime, and it is the age when 
speculation upon more cosmic relations first enter into the youth's 
thinking. Great care and discretion are necessary on the part of par- 
ents and teachers in guiding the restless youth safely through this crit- 
ical period. The question concerning the best kind of high school cur- 
riculum is closely bound up with a study of adolescence. Shall the 
Tiigh school course center about a few branches and shall these be 
drilled thoroughly into the pupil's mind, or shall the whole vista of 
human knowledge be opened up to him so that he may get a glimpse of 
many things and thus be enabled to better determine lines of interests 
which he is specially fitted to pursue. We know that it is just at this 
period that most pupils leave school, and many of them because they 
find nothing there that interests them. We also know of the great num- 
ber of misfits in the world because of having entered upon a mistaken 
calling. The question certainly deserves more careful study and inves- 
tigation. 



56 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

The foregoing are a few of the results that child-study has either 
demonstrated or emphasized. Many more could be indicated, but these 
will suffice for the present purpose. „«„e5^«rc 

How shall the teacher study children is the next and last cons dera- 
tion to which I pass. I shall not presume to enter into it exhaustively 
but shall only suggest a few lines of profitable work. To begin with 
I believe that every teacher should study, children and I also believe 
that every good teacher does study t'hem and that the best teachers 

^^How%hSl™°set about it and what preparation must I have? are the 
questions most frequently asked. If you have training in general psy- 
chology it is very desirable, but if you have not that do not wait Be- 
gin with the child, and thus gain the best part of your knowledge of 
psvchologv. While studying the children acquaint yourselves with the 
best available literature on the subject. This will enable you to coi-- 
rect your own observations. In order to do child-study work the 
teacher need not wait until the spirit moves to work out something en- 
tirely unheard of. The best work will be of the plain, everyday sort 
of observation of children. Observations of characteristics that are 
easilv apparent, but that are factors in determining a child s status in 
class and his future character. The teacher should determine what 
are the child's greatest possibilities, his greatest needs and limitations 
and the best methods of enabling her to help the child to realize his 
possibilities and to surmount obstacles to success. Remember that it 
is a knowledge of your individual pupils that you should seek rather 
than the "pedagogic phantom, the average child.'' The immediate 
outcome of the study should be better methods of dealing with the 
individual pupils and a greater mutual sympathy existing between 
teacher and pupil. The more the teacher can know about the pupil 
the better will she be able to deal with him. Too often all pupils of 
a given age are required to do the same work. No discrimination 
is made between the strong and the weak, the lame and the lazy. By 
such methods the weak are discouraged because of the excessive bur- 
dens, and the strong are disgusted because they are made to mark 
time. A better knowledge of pupils would help the teacher to adjust 

For convenience we may divide the studies into physical, intellectual, 
and moral. Under physical characteristics it would be well to note 
whether growth is normal, whether there are abnormalties of feature, 
etc These, however, seem to afford no very definite conclusions. 
There are undersized and ill-shaped persons with great mental ca- 
pacitv and there are persons with apparently normal physique who 
are lacking in intelligence and morality. More significant, it seems to 
me than size or outward form of feature, are the manner of their 
fun'ctionings. A disturbance of physical function means mental dis- 
traction at least, and often much more. If defects of sight or hear- 
ing are suspected simple tests may be made to verify suspicions, ir 
defects are discovered the case should be reported to parents and phy- 
sician. All tests are to be made in such a way as not to make the 
child self-conscious. The teacher must learn to study conditions with- 
out arousing antagonism. The only purpose is to better the child s 
welfare The teacher should further inform herself by talks with pu- 
pils and parents of the child's general health, whether sleep is nor- 
mal and sufficient, whether great fatigue is noticeable, whether the 
school work is too heavy or not. Teachers do not as a rule give due 
weight to the far-reaching results of school work, of loss of sleep, or 
lack of proper food. After some days of absence because of illness 
which mav have drained the whole body and brain of its reserve power 
and accustomed vitality, the pupil is given generally not less but more 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 57 

work to "catch up." Seldom do teachers inquire into the home rest, 
recreation, and relaxation of their pupils. The teacher ought specially 
to be on the lookout for signs of nervousness. This may be exhibited 
in various ways, as by tremulousness of hands, by shyness, by stam- 
mering, by irritability, etc. The causes of nervousness should be close- 
ly inquired into. Is it due to worry over lessons, over examinations, 
lack of sleep, lack of exercise, heredity, or what? In all cases a remedy 
should be sought. 

To test mental and moral characteristics no apparatus nor special 
tests are required. They are generally out of place. The daily contact 
of the teacher with pupils in the classroom and on the playground 
ought to reveal to the observant tocher the mental and moral status 
of her pupils. More important, however, than simply determining what 
mental and moral characteristics her pupils exhibit, the teacher should 
make an especial study of each pupil to find out best methods of arous- 
ing given states of knowing, feeling, and willing in them. To do this 
she will need to study their interests and the apperceptive material 
already in possession. To determine what the child already knows and 
how best to lead him to the next step is fundamental in all true 
teaching. 

Along wfth the careful observation of children carry on as wide 
a line of reading as possible. The works of Preyer, Tracy, Baldwin, 
Hall, and others are full of suggestions. Although you cannot imitate 
all their observations, and it would not be desirable if you could, yet the 
reading wiU suggest many new points to observe, and serve as a cri- 
terion for your own observations. Read as much on general psychol- 
ogy as possible, and do not overlook the valuable psychological mate- 
rial in general literature. Nowhere else can you find such minute de- 
lineations of types of character as in general literature. Leave no 
stone unturned in trying to secure the maximum of intelligent knowl- 
edge concerning your pupils and ways of developing them into complete 
manhood and womanhood. Remember that the child is the center. 
Hail with delight anything that will enable you to know him better, 
no matter from what source that information has been gleaned, 
whether by general observation, by means of the balance, the tape- 
line, the microscope, test-types, ocular instruments, or even the much 
tabooed questionnaire. Do not regard the field as exhausted by the 
study of one child, by examination of one characteristic. You need 
to know all the children that come under your care, and all about 
them, and the goal is not a baptism of printer's ink but a true knowl- 
edge of the children, that they may be ennobled and uplifted. It is 
the law of life that parents live only as long as they can be of use 
to their offspring; as soon as the offspring bearing period closes, de- 
cline sets in. Then the whole goal of life is education, and we should 
strive diligently as did Pestalozzi, to better know the human spirit, 
its laws of development, and the means of vivifying and ennobling it. 



58 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



CAX THE NORMAL SC^HOOL PREPARE TEACHERS 
EOR THE HIGH SCHOOLS 

A. H. SAGE. 

In the Fiigh schools of Wisconsin at the present time, there are em- 
ployed 584 teachers including principals of schools. Of this number, 
246, or about 42 per cent., are college graduates; 185. or about 32 per 
cent., are normal graduates; and 153, or about 26 per cent., are teach- 
ing on some kind of a teacher's certificate. If we take this demand 
for the normal school product as an answer to our question, it would 
seem that the normal school can prepare teachers for the high school, 
since it is now providing about one-third of all the high school teach- 
ers employed in the state. It can afford us no satisfaction, however, 
to beg the question in tnis manner, for it makes no consideration of 
the forces and factors which must determine the policy of the normal 
schools of this state, and with which they must deal with frankness and 
dignity if they would maintain the public approval. 

Until recently, the normal school has held practically exclusive sway 
in its peculiar professional field. Within a few years past, however, 
American colleges have taken up this work and pursued it with such 
vigor and success as to greatly diminish the exclusiveness of the nor- 
mal school domain. Among the many other elements which claim at- 
tention in this connection, comes the question of the real province 
of the normal school. Normal schools differ so much in general char- 
acter and extent that no one needs be surprised to hear it said that 
there is no significance to the expression "the normal school." The 
general character and aims of our colleges and universities are much 
better defined. In one normal school, all the usual academic branches 
together with a broad professional course are treated. In another, 
only professional work is done. In some normals, the academic work 
is of a very elementary character, while in others it assumes the pro- 
portions of a coMege curriculum. We learn of some normal schools 
in which practically only academic work is done, and where the pro- 
fessional training is left to grow as did Topsy of slavery day fame. 
Even in our own state where the courses are modeled and defined sub- 
stantially alike, a great diversity of practice prevails. Every expe- 
rienced teacher knows that the idea frequently prevails that profes- 
sional training for teaching' is a kind of superficial varnish, or a sort 
of embalming process by means of fine-spun theories and the whole 
category of methods, fads, and isms plastered on layer by layer. Nor 
are these notions or something akin to them confined to those in the 
commoner ranks of life. It is only recently that our higher institu- 
tions of learning have recognized the value of professional training 
enough to admit into their courses any consideration of it, and it ap- 
pears that in some of these cases this move has been made more with 
a view to attracting popular attention than to complying with a rec- 
ognized permanent demand. 

The normal school has been called an excrescence on the public school 
system of fhis country. Viewed from an academic standpoint, it per- 
haps is such, but the normal school as such can never be looked at 
in this limited way, and whatever may ultimately be its status in the 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 59 

academic line, it must always stand for the highest in its peculiar pro- 
fessional field or go to the wall, for it is on this rock it stands if it stands 
at all. As the case stands with us in Wisconsin today, the normal seems 
called on to train its students both academically and professionally. 
From first to last, our schools have faithfully striven toward a so- 
lution of this difficult double-headed problem. But while the nor- 
mal has been laboring to establish and secure sanction for its profes- 
sional ideals, the high school and the public school system generally 
have been making giant strides to the front. Of all the departments 
of our public school system, no one element has improved so rapidly as 
the high school during the past ten years. A recent impartial and con- 
servative writer has declared that the academic course of instruction 
in a few of the high schools in this state is superior to that in some 
normal schools. If the character and extent of the work in the average 
high school should increase for the next five years as fast as it has dur- 
ing the past decade, vthere would not be a normal in the state capable of 
suitably preparing teachers for it. 

I believe I stand in no danger of being seriously disputed when I say 
that the normal school should be the best school in the state both aca- 
demically and professionally. In any other profession or business, a 
man's defective training is largely his own loss and any advantage 
which comes from his superior training if he possess it accrues first 
and foremost to himself; but with the teacher the case is very different; 
any defect in his training is a direct and serious loss to the whole com- 
munity and any excellence that may come from his training produces 
its highest values in the direct service of the public. 

In a good high school of today, the courses of study as outlined on 
paper do not appear to differ largely in subject matter from the courses 
offered in our normal schools and colleges. It will be admitted that the 
work is more elementary in character and usually more text-bookish in 
quality. It is in this latter respect that one of the greatest elements 
of improvement may be looked for. A score or more of high schools in 
this state have faculties composed almost entirely of specialists, that is, 
teachers not only thoroughly trained for their work but whose services 
are devoted exclusively to some one field of work. A teacher in such 
a high school must not only be well grounded in the elements of a good 
general education but should have such a depth and breadth of training 
in some of the great fields of knowledge as to be a safe guide to the 
thought of his pupils whatever may be their proposed course in life. 
Does the normal school fit teachers for this kind of work? 

Let us make a specific analysis of the case. In the field of mathema- 
tics, the work required in our normal schools is not in excess of that 
required in many high schools and falls short of the course offered in 
some of them. Plane and solid geometry and a very ordinary course 
"in algebra are offered, while in some of the high schools trigonometry 
is added. Every experienced teacher knows that the literature of the 
ordinary mathematics and the sciences is full of allusions direct and 
indirect to the so-called higher mathematics, especially analytical geom- 
etry and trigonometry. How can a teacher be an intelligent stimulus 
to the higher educational ideals of a pupil in such fields of which he has 
not the remotest conception. Some of our fondest desires are rudely 
jostled when from one of our seniors we are asked to explain what is 
meant by the sine of an angle, the logarithm of a number, or the equa- 
"tion of a variable. And yet it is in this field of mathematics that our 
graduates receive the least adverse criticism on their work. 

With a view to securing the best possible consensus of public opinion 
concerning the relation of the normal graduate to the high school work, 
I addressed something over one hundred letters to high school princi- 
pals, superintendents, and other school officials. Among the questions 
-asked in these circular letters were the following: 



60 



WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



1. How many teachers in your high school faculty? 

1. How many are college graduates? 

2. How many are normal graduates? 

2. Looking over your past experience and omitting superintendents 
and principals, can you say that the college graduates in your faculties 
have on the whole commanded larger individual salaries than the nor- 
mal graduates? 

3. Which of the two classes just named have in your opinion aver- 
aged to hold their positions longer? (Of course definite statistics for a 
period of years are desired if convenient.) 

4. Is the principal of your high school a normal or a college graduate? 

5. If normal graduates are not admitted to positions in your high 
school faculty, will you very frankly state the reasons. In this con- 
nection I am especially anxious to know whether the objections to nor- 
mal graduates are based upon a theoretical consideration of their quali- 
fications or upon past experience with them in this capacity, and as 
specifically as possible what these objections are. 

6. In what respects does the normal graduate as a class differ from 
the college graduate in his capacity to fill high school positions? Do 
you observe any marked difference in scholarship as demanded for high 
school work? comparative excellence in methods of presenting the 
work? success in securing results? susceptibility to suggestion and im- 
provement in the work? social status in the community? 

7. If you have found the normal graduate deficient in scholarship for 
his work in the high school, please state as fully as may be in what 
respects this is true. 

8. Please state whether you are a graduate of a college or a normal 
school, and give me some idea of the extent of your acquaintance with 
the normal school and its methods. 

About eighty responses were received. In some respects these re- 
plies speak with no uncertain tone and show unmistakably the trend of 
educational affairs with reference to the normal and high schools as 
nothing else could do since they voice public sentiment in its most ef- 
ficient form. I have combined with my deductions from the data of 
these letters some conclusions drawn from the reports of the superin- 
tendent of education of this state and the report of the United States 
commissioner of education. 

There are 153 high schools in this state with four year courses of 
study, and 55 with three year courses. Of these 110 are on the ac- 
credited list of the university. More than half the accredited schools 
are in charge of college graduates as principals or superintendents, but 
in all these schools, 83 principals are college gradutes and an equal 
number or 83 are normal graduates. The remaining 42 are presumably 
not graduates of any higher institution of learning. 

The following table gives some comparative idea of the growth of 
the high schools during the past four years: 



Fonr-year course. ] 
Three-year course ■! 



Year. 



1894 

1898 



1894 

1898 



Aver- 
age 
attend- 
ance. 



7,779 
n,.S98 

1,946 
1,817 



Enrollment in Dep't of 



English. German. Classics. 



6,048 
6,934 

2,353 

2,238 



1,606 
3,620 



1,995 
3,594 



11 



Graduates. 



Male. 



314 

682 



139 
139 



Fe- 
male. 



626 
1,066 



140 

207 



Total 



940 
1.748 



279 
M6 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 61 

From this comparison, it will be seen that the graduation from the 
high schools is increasing at the rate of about 50% per year at the 
present time. It is also obvious that the increase is felt most strongly 
in the higher and more specialized departments. The demand for in- 
struction in German is increasing at the rate of nearly 60% per year 
while that for the classics is not far behind at 50%. Absolute statistics 
are not available for a similar comparison in regard to the science work, 
but all the evidence at hand indicates a decided increase in this depart- 
ment as welT. This of course means an elevation of the tone and char- 
acter of the work all along the line and a greatly increased demand for 
special trained teachers, e^ecially in the more advanced departments 
of the work. 

More than half of the replies received from high school people show 
that at least in some of the departments of their schools they demand 
specialists and look to the colleges for them for obvious reasons. More 
than forty out of about sixty replies from high school principals state 
that normal school graduates do better work the first few years, many 
of them specifically naming two years, than do college graduates. Some 
make no further qualifications of their statement but many add that the 
college graduate seems to outstrip the normal graduate in the long run. 
The following are expressions and views that frequently occurred in 
these letters; 

The normal graduate is better "grounded in. the common branches" 
of the high school course; "he knows his arithmetic, book-keeping, 
word-analysis, and sentential analysis better and loses less time in get- 
ting at these subjects with his classes than does the college graduate." 
Many speak of the superiority of the normal graduate in the matters of 
discipline and method. It is frequently remarked that the normal grad- 
uate is a better all round teacher for the earlier classes but fails most 
in the more advanced classes where the work is more highly specialized. 
A number of high school men lay strong emphasis on the belief that the 
training in methods at the normal often does more harm than good. 
They emphasize the oft repeated thought that the teacher trained to a 
methodical treatment of children will be more likely to look on older 
pupils in the same childish methodical way and waste much time "de- 
veloping and teaching" that which common sense may be relied on to 
secure to the pupil. It is the belief of some that training in the practice 
department for grade work detracts in some respects from the efficiency 
of the high school teacher, "sears him over with a kind of professional 
gloss," "gives him a feeling that he has finished his professional train- 
ing," "inclines him to act on theories and precedents that are not 
adapted to his case." The larger high schools show a decided tendency 
to reject normal graduates in the last two years of the course. This of 
course comes in part from the specialization tendency of these schools 
which calls for specialists in these departments. 

With a view to a better appreciation of the public sentiment, I take 
the liberty of making anonymous extracts from some of these letters: 
"Normal graduates are admitted to positions in our high school pro- 
vided they are qualified, but my experience is that while one normal 
graduate may be qualified there are ten who are not. I find them weak 
in the classics and the sciences but usually strong in English. They 
usually excel in methods of presenting the work but are not always able 
to see beyond their methods." 

Another writer says; "After eleven years of observation in one of our 
leading cities, I am forced to the conclusion that the really efficient 
teacher, with rare exceptions, can be found only among the ranks of 
those who have made special preparation for their work, either in the 
normal school or some other institution in which a fair equivalent for 
normal training is given." Another says, — "The policy of our board 
has been to hire college graduates; first, because they can secure college 



62 • WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

graduates for about the same they would pay normal graduates; and, 
second, because the board feel that they can hold pupils in the high 
school better if they employ teachers from the higher institutions of 
learning: and. third, because they wish their teachers to have a broader 
preparation than the normal can give. In my experience, I have found 
college graduates to be stronger teachers and especially of the lan- 
guages and the sciences. Normal graduates know better how to go to 
work with their classes and do not need as close supervision at the out- 
set but later there is not much difference." 

Concerning graduates from high school graduate courses, one says, — 
"The high school graduate is a mere boy, known as such only, and acts 
as such; in two years he graduates from a normal school. He is still 
only a boy, a little more advanced in knowledge, and with little or no ac- 
quired dignity, decision or maturity of judgment." Another writes, — 
"My preference is for university graduates for the reason that the uni- 
versity affords opportunities for specialization; the present condition of 
normal schools, and the arrangement of courses in them do not make 
this possible. The high school teacher needs not only to know his sub- 
ject, but he needs an over-view that comes only from a rich preparation 
in his special subject. My belief is that normal schools will come more 
and more to meet the requirements for specializations which are the de- 
mands of t"he high schools." 

"The normal graduate knows how to teach; but his knowledge of each 
branch is less thorough than that of the university graduate. He has 
knowledge of more branches, but lacks that quality in his work which 
comes from having done a few things well. I can not say that the nor- 
mal graduate is so much deficient in scholarship, but that in nearly all 
branches he is required to teach about as much in the high school as 
he himself has studied in the normal. For these reasons our board are 
exceedingly cautious about admitting normal graduates into the high 
school. The university high school inspectors are constantly calling at- 
tention to these points, and so in order to be sure, or surer as some of 
our board members think, of keeping the high school on the accredited 
list a university graduate is hired. The normal graduate's chances for 
a high school position are getting less every day. and I fear that with 
the present organization and equipment of our normal schools our 
graduates can not hold high school positions in the future as they have 
in the past." 

There is one other important phase of the high school problem that 
can not be omitted in this connection: I refer to the present custom of 
accrediting high schools by the university. This policy on the part of 
the university is undoubtedly slowly but surely diminishing the chances 
of the nominal graduate in the high school. High school principals 
freely admit this. Boards of education after one or two conferences 
with the university inspector would need to be made of different stuff 
than most men are if they did not feel impressed with the advantage of 
at least dominating their school faculty with teachers acceptable to the 
university." In the table of statistics presented above it was noticed 
that the demand for German as well as Latin and Greek was increasing 
at the rate of 50% or more a year. This has practically come about 
since the university inspection of the high schools began, and it can 
not be doubted that it is mainly due to the influence of that institution. 
To any one familiar with the trend of school affairs in this state of late, 
it will be no news when I state that the study of chemistry is suddenly ' 
disappearing from the courses of the high schools. If it be true that 
the university does not approve of this study in the high schools, is it 
to be understood that chemistry is not to be commended as a high school 
branch, or is it that the great forces of the secondary school system of 
this state are to be brought into line as a feeder for the state university 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 189S-99. 63 

and chemistry omitted witlioiit regard to the interests of the thousands 
of high school pupils who never attend a university? 

From the above considerations, it appears that the university is 
dominating the policy of the high schools in some measure at least. 
This might appear at first sight to be an objectionable state of affairs, 
but it must De borne in mind that the state university is in a position 
to wield an immense influence for the upbuilding ^of the secondary 
schools and that if this power be properly used it must be one of the 
best influences that could possibly enter into the school situation of 
this state. The university of the state of New York has dominated or 
controlled the policy of the high schools of that state for many years; 
indeed, it may be said that a high school in New York state is what 
the state university makes it. But of course that institution has no 
resident student body and so is not open to the liability of imposing 
conditions in the interests of itself as opposed to those of the high 
schools of the state. That the normal school can not compete against 
such forces as these if it comes to a question of competition along these 
lines goes without saying. More than seventy per cent, of the high 
school principals who responded to my inquiry state that university 
graduates are favored in the high school and they offer explanations in 
most cases which show that this state of affairs is due in some measure 
to their accredited relations with the state university. 

It is not the purpose of this paper to consider the expediency of this 
policy of our state university, except in so far as it bears on the question 
of the relations of the normal school to the high school. In strengthening 
the language courses in the high school, an outlet is found for the col- 
lege graduate in his strongest and most exclusive field and in just the 
work in which the normal school is weakest; and must necessarily re- 
main so unless its course be materially extended. Every real advance- 
ment in the standard of the high school should be encouraged and if 
the normal can not keep pace, let it find the field which belongs to It 
and confine its efforts to tnat field, but neither the normal, nor the col- 
lege or university should endeavor to turn the work of the high school 
away from that course of action and development best suited to the 
needs of its pupils. 

Let us now-examine the situation on the side of the normal schools 
themselves. According to the estimates of the presidents of the several 
schools of fhe state, about twenty-five per cent, of the normal graduates 
at the present time go into high school positions. This per cent, is on 
the decrease. Nearly all of these men agree that the minimum require- 
ments in the respective courses are not adequate to fitting teachers for 
the high school. Five of the seven schools favor the extension of the 
present courses along lines calculated to fit teachers for the high school, 
and most of them, perhaps all, show a decided disposition to a closer 
Inspection of the qualifications of the high school graduate candidates 
for admission. 

As evidence in this connection, I will cite the case of those high 
school graduates who applied for admission to my classes in physics 
this year. There were eighty of them and all were graduates of high 
schools in this state. EiglJt questions scattered over the entire field 
of elementary physics were presented to them with the request that 
they write on any five. The questions dealt with the commonest funda- 
mental phenomena of the science and involved no exact technical or 
mathematical statement of facts. Nearly one-third of the class stood 
under 25%, more than half were under .50%, while not more than ten or 
twelve could possibly be marked above 75%. 

Some of my correspondents were very out-spoken in the objection to 
graduates form the two years' normal school course, and that mainly on 
two grounds: first, it is argued that they are too young and immature 



64 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

of mind to take hold of the work with that vigor and capacity which 
come from the possession of at least a few settled convictions; and in 
the second place, they feel that these people have not been under the 
influence of the normal long enough to get above their ideals as pupils 
in the high school, a fact often commented on by the normal people 
themselves. 

The information received from a large number of these high school 
principals and superintendents shows unmistakably that according to 
the public estimate, the normal graduate is most deficient in the fields 
of the sciences and the languages. So obviously true is this in the case 
of the languages (See normal courses of study) that with one or two 
exceptions tlie normal schools of this state are not seriously attempting 
to fit teachers for this work. In the sciences, however, the case is dif- 
ferent. Physics and biology may be cited in illustration; twenty weeks 
in each branch is the maximum time required by the student. Any one 
with any considerable acquaintance with the field of organic nature 
does not need to be reminded that the student finds this an insufficient 
time in which to get acquainted with the fundamentals of even one of 
the great departments of biology, to say nothing about getting such a 
grasp of the subject as to teach it. Who dares assert that more than 
one in ten of our full course graduates could conscientiously offer him- 
self as a teacher of botany in a good high school? And this one in ten 
would doubtless be the student who carried his study in this field con- 
siderably beyond the required work. 

In most of the normals, I believe no attempt is made to cover the 
field of elementary physics in the twenty weeks; so that the student 
who graduates in the regular course has not had even a cursory survey 
of the merest rudiments of what some would designate as the chief of 
the physical sciences. If perchance the whole field of elementary 
physics be covered in the twenty weeks, the case is not essentially al- 
tered so far as fitting a person to teach is concerned. I believe a twenty 
weeks' course spread over the entire field of elements of physics, is to 
the adult mind more of an injury than a benefit; while, for the same 
amount of study on a limited portion of the subject, the best than can 
he said is tnat it affords some culture but by no means fits the indi- 
vidual to teach the subject even in the elementary schools. In addition 
to this inadequate required work, however, some of our schools are of- 
fering as high as six ten weeks elective courses, an amount which ex- 
ceeds that offered in any of the colleges of the state, and considerably 
in excess of that required in any of the courses usually pursued at the 
university by students who enter the profession of teaching. Some- 
thing like this is true of some of the leading courses in our normal 
schools. Tt must be said, however, that the student finds it impossible 
to avail himself of much of this elective work unless he remain in school 
for a year of post graduate work. 

As an indication of the demand made on the normal school for this 
elective work. I may cite the experience of our own school. The Osh- 
kosh normal began offering a few of these special courses four years 
ago. The 3emand for them from the first was large and has steadily In- 
creased until at the present time at least fifteen such ten week courses 
are given. The average enrollment in these classes probably exceeds 2.5 
students. On the other hand, some of the normal schools are making 
no attempt at anything of this kind, though many of their graduates go 
into high school positions. From these considerations, it will be seen 
^hat some of our normal school graduates will be prepared to teach 
science in the high school, while others will be unfitted to teach it in 
any school. 

This, it seems to us, is often just as true in kind if not in degree of our 
college graduates. These special elective courses are arranged with 
special reference to the needs of those fitting themselves for high school 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1S9S-99. 65 

work. In the Oshkosh normal alone at the present time, more than one 
hundred students in the junior and senior classes are enrolled in these 
special classes, and a constantly increasing number remain annually for 
post graduate work along these lines. During the year just passed, 
thirteen graduates of this and other normal schools and colleges were 
enrolled in these courses. During the present year, thus far, eighteen 
or nineteen have been enrolled. These people almost without exception, 
go into high school positions. Doubtless the experience of the other 
normals is much the same. 

There are two elements in the normal school which through a process 
of natural selections tend to bring the best qualified persons into the high 
school positions: one is the fact that mostly only the stronger students 
take these special courses, and the other is the fact that the normal 
school faculties consider it a matter of good policy as well as of practical 
necessity, to recommend their stronger students for this work. These 
two elements which have recently entered into the policy of our normal 
schools have produced a marked change in the character and qualifi- 
cation of our graduates. It is still true that a considerable number of 
those not especially prepared for high school work do find positions in 
these schools. Would it not be well for the normal schools to make the 
distinction between these two classes more pronounced in the future, 
and to look forward to an added year generally for those proposing to 
enter high school positions? 

The status of the normal school, in the opinion of the writer, is likely 
to undergo a marked change in the near future, and either go up to the 
rank of the normal college or step down exclusively to the preparation 
of teachers for the elementary schools. More than 200 of our American 
colleges an3 Universities are already offering pedagogical courses. The 
character and extent of the work in these courses is rapdly increasing 
and in some instances have already exceeded in quantity and quality the 
work done in the normal schools. There is every reason why the great- 
est of the social sciences should have a place of honor in the university, 
and thus be dignified to the rank of a true profession side by side with 
law, medicine and the ministry. 

Can we now from these considerations draw any larger conclusions 
pertinent to our subject. That the graduates of the Wisconsin normal 
schools are__filling positions acceptably in the high schools of the state 
is a fact. That they are proving most acceptable in the common branches 
a.nd less specialized departments of the high school is clearly shown 
by the almost unanimous testimony of their employers, as well as by 
reference to the specific character of their preparation. That the high 
schools are rapidly changing in the extent and kind of work they are do- 
ing and in their organization and conduct, probably all will admit; but 
we have endeavored to show in what directions some of these changes 
are most pronounced and briefly to cite the chief causes and influences 
to which tliey are due. It has been shown that these and other con- 
siderations have wrought a decided and practical change of policy, or 
perhaps we should say extension of policy ,on the part of the normal 
schools seriously attempting to fit teachers for the high school. This 
extension of the normal academic course is an emphatic recognition of 
the inabillly of the straight course normal graduate to satisfactorily 
meet the demands of the modern high school; and the question nat- 
urally arises as to whether the normal schools should extend their 
courses and organization to meet these new and increasing demands, or 
confine their efforts strictly to the preparation of teachers for the ele- 
mentary schools. The data on which this paper is based seem to show 
clearly that, whatever may be the qualification of the normal school to 
fit teachers for the high school, it is already meeting in open field a 
product from the pedagogical courses of our colleges and universities 
5 



gg WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

normal school as at P^^^^S ^^^^^^f.^.^^.^.^^Vfrr the high school of the 
f P'^ '^nnM se™t'o retidelar'ge'y ^S insufficient material equip- 

hp ?n tMs grelt work. It is now sending its product to the high 
be m this great ^"T^^" j ^^ g^ jt must be better equipped for 

JSfwoi^k'a^ndt morl^ub'sS^^ supported by the state in its efforts^ 
Sir anrmot till then may we hope to see the normal graduate taking 
In und?sDutedplaceTn The field of secondary education, not because he 
fspossbTyable^ut because he is unquestionably superior, and because 
he is an educated as well as trained specialist in his chosen field. 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 67 



SCHOOL EOOM DECORATION FROM A MOTHER'S 
POINT OF VIEW. 

MRS. J. B. ESTEE. 

The purpose of this paper is to give some practical observations 
gained in research and personal experience. It is limited to the very 
beginnings of this great work of school-room housekeeping — making the 
schools less factory-like and more habitable and attractive; to the prep- 
aration of the rooms for whatever is to follow in the way of decoration. 

The present mania for school-decoration presents scores of interest- 
ing problems, and not a few serious ones. The school-houses are surely 
the most important of public buildings and should contain the best that 
there is to be had. Yet how often are they among the poorest and shab- 
biest! Not that the people endorse such conditions when they actually 
know of their existence, but the fact is, many people have not interested 
themselves enough in the school-houses to know their practical wants, 
let alone plan a remedy. So long as the patrons or mothers — for it Is 
Ihe mother's business to look after the children's school environment — 
were satisfied with unwholesome conditions there was little hope for 
marked improvement. Fortunately, we have outgrown that period. In 
the vestibule of the twentieth century many things, hitherto unknown, 
have come to us. Among them the fact that we as a people are lacking 
in the power of seeing beauty. One of the crying needs today is culti- 
vation of taste — aesthetic education. 

That tfie influence of environment is irresistible no one doubts. 
Since the children of all classes spend two-thirds of their waking hours 
in the school, the question is yet to be determined which has the 
stronger influence — school environment or home furnishings. 

Trained in the habit of seeing beauty, a child's taste is naturally 
developed and he comes instinctively to discriminate between what is 
ugly and what is beautiful. 

It is, therefore, very important that the decorative spirit shall have 
come to stay; that the efforts now being made to adorn bare walls and 
furnish shabby rooms shall not be followed by a feeling of disillusion- 
ment. We can all recall educational movements from which we ex- 
pected great results, when, after the usual period of agitation, some- 
thing of a disappointment was experienced. And we concluded that the 
movement was either impractical or useless or both, for everything that 
ought to be done can be done. The necessity of the movement we are 
considering — ^school decoration — can hardly be exaggerated. To insure 
a steady and satisfactory advancement we must in the first place ex- 
clude the trivial, the trashy and the theoretical. "We must be practical. 
And in the second place, we must rigidly maintain a high ideal. It Is 
not enough that the pictures and casts be limited to the best. The work 
from the very beginning — the tinting of the walls, paintings of the 
wood-work and supplying the various furnishings must be done in ac- 
cordance with the best knowledge there is to be had upon the subject 
and with scrupulous care for the art of common things. A bad bit of 
workmanship or of furniture has inevitably a coarsening infiuence. The 
merely commonplace cheapens life. And all such work will inevitably 
be followed by a feeling of disillusionment. For this reason no step 
should be taken without realizing the seriousness of its consequences. 



WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION, 
bo 

„ „e couKl dispose o. all the oM monstrosUies we hav^^^^^^^^ 

louses and replace them wi h «™ °^fi,°"Jone is-bulld the new bulla, 
that is impossible. The only th ng to M^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^ p^^^,^,^ ^^^ 

SfL'?h^ -- -"»Hrofe o', Sesfoir buUdln., with its u.^ 
a-hltS.f;?s'in;s\Tsr.ri .Usn.^^^^^ 

zling cross-lights, the ^^'f VnH be?ne so wood may be painted any de- 
surfaces. For the wood-woik being sort w ^^ key-note to 
s red color, and therefore the wal\«^ ^^^ flet that the walls of the 
the entire color scheme. It is now a seau« ^^ ^^ ^hite walls are 
schooM-oom should be some sort of color. Glai^.^g^^ ^^^^ .^^.^^.^^ 
not only inartistic, ^"^ injunous to the ey - determining the proper 
them by the ^-efle^^^^V^^e'snSrdrora sanitary and aesthetic stand- 
color, that is. proper as f^timated ^;«^ ^ ^^^^^ here is a critical 
^^rnl- TmI^ e\r;LSrmust l: Seated for itself alone, according to 
FtTexpo urf aTe'w general -l^s will apply ^o a 1. ^^ ^^^^ 
' First— The wall surface when finished ^^''}}'^ ^ ^^^^ all parts of 

so thai the amount of 1^^^^^ ,^e1'effects are ve ftrySg to sensitive eyes, 
the surface, as wavy or clouded effec^^^^^^^^ responsive and cheerful. 
Second-the colors shou W be hai momoi , i^ ^^^^^^ ^^ soothing 
Last-and of the greatest impm^^^'^^e question is raised-what colors 
not irritating to the optic neive^ ^i can answer that in no better way 
are irritating and whicli, soothing? lean ans gtandish, a cele- 

than to quote the professional OP^^^^^^ J; „^^,V„„ ^een given. He said, 
braced specialist of Boston, l^^^\l^'^f^,Tt^lZn^^^^^^ of the eyes 
"Remember the general rule with egaid to tne ^^^ ^^^^^ .^ 

to the colors of the spectrum, which is he .^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^. 
red end of the spectrum, the "^oj^^" "r"'' "t^um the easier it is to the 
nearer the color is to the blue ^„^^,.«J,^^| 'S aTits derivatives should 
eyes. From this it will be ?^^^/^^|\\^t^arly as bad, while yellow 
be rigidly excluded, and orange is a ^o near y ^^ -^ ^n other^ 

sho ikl never be taken by I>reference, but may be jus ^^^ absolutely 

wise dark and badly lighted room^ Greens an^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ 
safe colors. The ^^Pth of color is dependent y ^^^.^^ ^ southern 

itv of ligh't." From this it is conclnsive tnat a ^^^^ ^^^^^^ 

exposure, filled with ^"-^i^h ^bl J sl^gravs,' of varying depth, accord^ 
with cooler tones, as Si-e^"^^^°^,^i^'|i'^'a northern exposure, one into 
ing to the light; whereas a i«o"^.^J'^ifoSld receive warmer treatment,, 
which the sun seldom or never ^^^er"- f.''^" ^ for the class-room. 

Colors should never bemused j^ ,^^ ^^j^f^^, /andl^^- ^^^"^ ^^"^ '^ f 
but the tones should be mode^st. luminous ana ^^^erless aspect, 

safe color, it is "nsatisfactory owing to wood-work is 

Brown, unless very V^^'v.?/the wl^ '"^'^^^^^ '""^ '''^'''^ ^^'"^ 

painted ligTiter in ^^^^^/^^'J^^^f ,0^0 added to preserve the harmony. 

light, with just enough ^^ J^^^;^^'^/^' "^l for corridors. . ^ 

Warmer and deeper tones may be ^^^d tm ^^^^ ^^^^^^^^ .^ 

All that has been said i-e^ar^^;"^/^^^ c^ 01 ^ ^^^ of 

s^rg^^s;^r:;:^t^aipt:t^u.a. 

SSb/S^rS^r ^^iS t^^l ^^uSibuldance of sunlight, 
the transparent quality has Pi'^Y^^^S" rooms that is, difficult to har- 

There is one feature i" ."^^f.^^^^^^^.^t ^s ^.el.'^"^'^''^'^- ^ ^^ 
monize in any color combination that is^ ^h^ ^^^^^^^ boards here in 

olive green is being used with ^f /^^/^;f ^Uhing to the eyesight and less 
Milwaukee. This is found to be more sootnmg 

inartistic than the oW-fashioned black-boaids^ ^^ ^ ^^^^ ^^p. 

Just a word is due the position of picture mouiai g 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 69 

plied with black-boards, the picture moulding should be placed at the 
top of the wall surface, i. e., at the ceiling. This will lessen by one the 
horionztal lines that cut up the wall surface, of which there are still 
two, — the c'halk tray and moulding at the top of the illustration board. 
But in the office and the teachers' room where there are no illustration 
boards, the picture moulding may be placed eighteen or twenty inches 
below the ceiling. In which case the ceiling color may be carried down 
to the picture moulding. 

Wall registers are painted the color of the wall surface instead of that 
forbidding black so often used; while the radiators and steam pipes 
may be finished in gilt or bronze. 

In considering the minor details — plants, bulletin boards, sash cur- 
tains, etc. — we will do well to recall the advice of Ruskin regarding 
the home furnishings and exclude everything that does not serve for 
use, or beauty, or both. As to plants, there are a few palms, ferns 
and vines which adapt themselves to the class-room temperature and 
will last for months in succession. They must, however, be exchanged 
when they begin to discolor or look starved, as they are then no longer 
decorative. 

Sash curtains are to shut out a too strong light, or obstruct an other- 
wise unpleasant view. They should never be white, but some tone that 
will harmonize with the color combination of the room. For bulletin 
boards a soft olive green burlap will prove effective. 

Having finished with walls, wood-work, window shades, illustration 
boards, etc., we next come to the chairs, desks and tables. There we 
may be guiBed somewhat by this fact: the class-room is a work-room 
in the same sense that the home library is a work-room. The furni- 
ture will in quality and quantity be in keeping with the purpose and 
occupation of the room. If the atmosphere of the home, as produced 
by its furnishings, reveals the tastes and interests of the family, so 
that of the school-house should represent the people of the ward. Al- 
though we may have well framed Raphael photographs on the walls 
and first model Angelo sculpture on hand-made iron brackets, yet, if 
we have not a decent chair in the school-house our aesthetic character 
suggests sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. 

The principal's office stands as an index to the school. Unless it is 
adequately representative it should be one of the first rooms to receive 
attention. If it chances to be in one of the older buildings, one of 
the worst problems will be the treatment of the floor. For a floor in 
the principal's office, teachers' room and library the best way, in the 
light of present experience, is to carpet with a heavy quality of lino- 
leum in the natural color. It wears well, the dull, soft brown is in- 
conspicuous, and being plain, there is no offensive design to mar the 
color combination of the room. 

From this it is but fair to concede that what the school-houses need 
is a siege of good, practical housekeeping. This may be one reason the 
movement appeals so strongly to mothers; why it has swept like con- 
tagion from Boston to San Francisco; and why, while yet in its in- 
fancy, it requires but little optimism to see that it is destined to have 
great influence. One of the more immediate results will be cleaner 
school-houses. And as the mothers become more interested in making 
the schools attractive, there will be developed a more friendly and 
helpful relation between teachers and mothers. 

No exaggerated prophetic power is needed to see the time when these 
voluntary organizations, endowed with suggestive power, will have 
served their purpose and the great M^ork will be officially adopted. 
Speed the day when Wisconsin will have a State Director of Art; when 
every city and town will have an art council with power to condemn 
public monstrosities, and when every board of school directors -svjll have 
an art committee. 



^Q WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE HAKD. 

H. „. BEX.KIE.n, CHICAOO MANUA. TRAIMNO SCHOOL. 

. .,- 4.-^r, v.ic idpa of education 
AS man ascends in ^^^ ^^^t'' Z^XrsSnt^^^ of education 
chtnge^s. We read in cn^r boyhood t^^^^^^ P^^^^ ^'^-l^^f^TftsTee 
was to ride, to shoot, and to speaK uie masculine half of its tiee 

bioader but was confined m Athens to tne n r^^^ Ro^an idea 

c tizens,' never Probably more than 30^00J^_ -^^^ ^, ,,,. for the upper 
was similar to the Greek,— oiatoiy, guv ^^ Tractate of MiUo.t, 

class Coming to much l^tertmies the celeb, ate .^^^ ^^^ education 
wSch everybody praises and "J^^^f^^^^^ The modern idea of educa- 
rxclusively for the leaders ol the state. 1 1 includes the edu- 

tion diffeis totally from the ^"^^^"Vhfs modern idea of what should 
cation of the people, of the mass^ Jil'JeSt on been greatly modified, 
ronstltute an education ba^, --^thm a ^ene^^^^^^J; ,eai schule competes 
if not wholly revolutionized I'J ^'^JJJ^^f^y, a generation ago, a boy 
with the gymnasium. In oiir «^^^ ^"J^'^g-eek, and a girl could not 
eould not Jter^^ollege^with^it^^ ^^„^^, ^,,,,,, Greek is 

Setter than the number having Greek^ education in three 

school curriculum, also. ,^„„,,x-„. fact or principle, in higher edu- 
There is, however, a very '™P°3„\^^L 'extent in the common school,- 
cation which is found to a ^:^ry 7"^'^„e?ent idea of educating the few 
a act that seems to be %r«^;^,^,°JJi\^S men and a very few women 
only. The state "diversity educates a le^ ^^^^ j^ law. m medi- 

for their life work. The state o^eis tiee inst number of men 

Siefn engineering and lately in agricul^^^^^^^^^^ IgHculture, is very 
following these professions, i"^l"'l^V''^J' ^nd women who earn their 
small compared with the number «« ^^^^^^^^'J'^educates the lawyer, the 
fwelihood in mechanical pui-suits. ™^!^\^\V,e,, ,^, blacksmith, the 
phvsician. the engineer, .^'^^^^X education is made in Europe; and 
shoemaker? Provision for ^^^^^^^/^^^f ^^ u,e United States^ Perm t 
this question must soon be ^""f.^^f'^ „reat educational need in this 
me to say that in my ;\"'^sm«^„^ f^e gieat ^^, colleges, but 

country at the P^-^f^^J^Jf^.^'ireducated mechanics. But lest I be 
trade schools which shall """isn enuta believe that trade 

mfsi'nderstood, permit "^^/^ fLhv the state; certainly not at pres- 
rnstruction should be "J^;^\^;; ^ ^ ,,fjpiVed Ind will be supplied by prx- 
cTit This ereat need should oe ^V' ' u„ii ho hPtter understood, our 

wealthy philanthropists will gne '^"*^'* ' . ' t^ey now give it tor 
^f'u-ade 'schools as freely and a^^J-^^^-^/.^has already begun In 
the foundation of "n>^^;;«'t'es^^ peter Cooper founded the Cooper In- 
fact. it began years ago, when ir-eier ^ 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 7I 

Perhaps T£ is well here to distinguish between the different schools 
in which the training of the hand forms an essential part of the cur- 
riculum: 

1. The technological school, including schools of mechanical and elec- 
trical engineering, in which a thorough course of machine shop prac- 
tice is demanded of every student. 

2. The technical school, which gives instruction, not in manual skill 
alone, but also in the science which underlies and is germane to the 
mechanical processes of a trade. 

3. The trade school, which confines its instruction largely or wholly 
to the use of the tools and machines of the tr^de. Thus, a weaving 
school, if a technical school, furnishes instruction in the history and 
construction of the loom, in the qualities and values of wool and silk, 
in the action of dyes and mordants, in the designing of patterns, etc. 
The mere working of the loom, which might constitute the entire in- 
struction in a trade school, is a very small part of the instruction in 
a technical weaving school. 

4. The manual training school, in which instruction in tools and ma- 
terials is wholly pedagogic. Of course, it is impossible to separate the 
industrial from the educational effect and value of this training of the 
brain through the hand, and the hand through the brain. Indeed, the 
term "manual training" is most unfortunate, since to most minds it 
conveys only a half truth. 

We generally distinguish between the industrial and the educational 
values of manual training. But the two are sometimes scarcely dis- 
tinguishable, since a man's industrial value depends in so great a meas- 
ure upon Ills intellectual ability and training. I trust, therefore, that 
a very few words on this topic may not be inappropriate. 

1. As has been said,, the manual training school is not a school for 
the teaching of a trade or trades. But it cannot be denied that the 
pupil acquires mechanical skill, more or less, according to his natural 
aptitudes. Some boys fail to receive much benefit; but the great ma- 
jority of the pupils, especially of the graduates, are able to earn a liv- 
ing with tiieir hands, as a result of their training in the school. They 
have acquired mechanical skill, not by rule of thumb, under the direc- 
tion of an ignorant mechanic; but intelligently, in a scientific way, 
under the instruction of a skillful teacher. Very few of them will work 
at the bench very long, if at all. By their versatility, their intelligence, 
their superior mental power, they become foremen, superintendents, 
managers, etc. 

Many illustrations might be given to illustrate the superiority of the 
manual training graduate over even skillful mechanics, whose knowl- 
edge is confined to what they have learned in the shops, in which the 
reasons of many, processes are not learned. I shall give two only. 

The following was told me by one of the assistant superintendents 
of the pubFic schools of Chicago. A dispute arose between the master 
mechanic of a railroad and one of our graduates employed on the road, 
in regard to the application of a certain mechanical principle. The 
matter was referred to higher authority, and decided in favor of the 
hoy. 

Another graduate was employed as draughtsman and designer in an 
establishment for the making of articles of wrought iron. He sub- 
mitted a design for an elaborate piece of work, which the foreman of 
the blacksmith shop declared could not be made. The foreman also 
sneered at !lie youthful designer for being so ignorant of his business 
as to submit an impossible design: adding that it was not surprising, 
since he was o^ly a school-boy. The youth pushed the smith aside, se- 
lected the stock for the design, turned the draught on the forge, and 
with his own hands made the piece as designed. 



rj2 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

SjfeMllie proverbial IngeB.nty of the YaBkee nation ,8 not duo 

^ !rt;;?tS"?rs;reX';'.e'?'"?t''\r„Vt\^L'^rc!£|;^,or a 

farme?rbov educated in a manual training school, can, ^vi h a few 
Sle 'ools'sa4 to the farm many dollars and --^ Ume^ ^achin r',? 
hands will in a few minutes, make repairs of ^^iming machinery 
which otherwise would delay the planting or gathering of crops for 
hours even davs. This is not a fancy picture; there is abundant evi- 
dence' that Tt has been done. A few days ago the owner of a ranch 
anXd for the privilege of receiving instruction m the school that 
he mSht save time bv fhe repair of his own machinery. He had seen 
ft donf on a ifeiehboring ranch by a manual training school bo5^ 
'*2.Tur undemanding of the intellectual 7.^^^^%°^^ ,"J^\""jy^Twl 
will depend almost entirely upon our ^«"^^Ption of e ucatiom If we 
believe that education is merely or chiefly the study of books tne 
cramr^ing of the memory with facts, manual training has no place lu 

^■^We prefer to believe that education is something more than a knowl- 
edge of literature; something more. even, than the development of 
thfinteiect; and we believe also that it is ^^^r>^^^^^^^J\^'''''}^]^^. 
hand and eve without cultivating the brain, of which the hand and 
ev^ are but the agents. We do not believe that the hand or rather 
the f;u?« ? "diSerfntiates man from the monkey;" although it cannot 
be denied fhat the human thumb confers upon man -power of which 
the monkev is forever incapable; but we maintain, and call upon hs- 
tory^nd science as witnesses, that mind and hand are not antagonistic 
but are loving co-workers; what while "mind makes the man," mind 
has alwavs ha. the loyal service of its indispensable he per. he hand^ 
and that the present civilization of the race was impossible ^ithout the 
human hand. Emerson's beautiful lines are as true of mmd and hand 
as they are of the sexes: 

"From the twins is nothing hidden; 

To the pair is naught forbidden; 

Hand in hand the comrades go 

Every rook of nature through; 

Each for other they were born, 

Each can other best adorn." 

Dr Henrv Maud.=^lev. writing on the Physiology of the Mind, observes 
that "ihe great advances in science have uniformly corresponded w-ith 
the invention of some instrument by which the nower of the senses has 
been increased, or the range of action extended." 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 73 

Ruskin exclaims: "Let the youth once learn to take a straight shav- 
ing off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick 
level in its mortar, and he^ has learned a multitude of other matters 
which no lips of man could ever teach him." 

The physiologist is making progress in tracing the connection of mind 
and body. He has located the control of different phases of muscular 
action in different parts of the brain. With unerring accuracy and con- 
fident assurance he removes a portion of the skull, and finds the tumor 
which by Its pressure on the brain has paralyzed the action of certain 
muscles. He is also making progress in the study of the converse 
of this, viz., in the effect of muscular action on the brain. A noted 
physician of Boston, Dr. Clarke, says: "The growth, training and 
employment of the hands of the young aid in the building of a brain. 
Cut off an arm in infancy, or compel it to be inactive, and there will 
be less brain in adult life." "What is true of the hand is true of all 
other organs of the body. They and the brain are developed by recip- 
rocal action." "The eye and the ear, the hand and the foot, must be 
exercised and taught in our schools by appropriate labor, and books no 
longer regarded as the only factor, if we would have fully developea 
brains." "No perfect brain ever crowned an imperfectly developed 
body." 

Dr. Maudsley says: "The muscles are not alone the machinery by 
which the mind acts upon the world, but their actions are essential ele- 
ments in our menial operations." 

Let us examine for a few moments some of the well-known operations 
of our brains. Here I shall quote from Superintendent Balliet, of 
Sprigfleld, Mass.: 

It is well known that that portion of the brain "controlling the hand 
and arm is very much larger than the area controlling any other por- 
tion of the body of equal size, except the face. This seems to be due 
to the fact that it requires a very large number of cells to effect the 
fine adjustments and delicate co-ordinations of the muscles of the hand 
in its infinfte variety of movements." 

"The exercise of the special senses is necessary for the proper phys- 
ical growth of the brain. Sense training, in so far as it is a physical 
process at all, consists not in training the external sense organs, but 
in developing their brain centers." "Both the sensory cells and the 
motor cells develop through "exercise. It is the function of these cells 
to generate nerve energy to contract the muscles, and to co-ordinate 
muscular movements. Voluntary muscular movements have therefore 
the effect not only of exercising the muscles involved, but also of call- 
ing into activity the motor brain cells which control them. Indeed, 
these motor cells cannot be made to act and to develop except by means 
of the muscles; and muscular exercise, whether in the way of ordi- 
nary labor, or recreation, or of gymnastics, or of manual training, is 
absolutely indispensable to the proper development of the motor area 
of the brain." In persons deprived, by disease, of muscular exercise 
for many years, the motor area of the brain is found, after death, to 
be more or less atrophied. "Exercise of the motor cells must come dur- 
ing the period of brain growth, if it is to be most effective; and the 
lack of such exercise during this period is a matter of very serious 
consequence to the brain. It has been found that the amputation of 
an arm or leg after maturity has been reached is not nearly so detri- 
mental to the corresponding brain centers as a like amputation in 
childhood." "What does manual training contribute to the develop- 
ment of the mind? Examine the processes of seeing and hearing. 
Light strikes the retina of the eye, and the impression is conveyed 
to the visual cells in the brain, when a sensation of color is produced. 
These cells, after having been stimulated many times, acquire the power 
of reproducing these sensations in the form of ideas. These ideas are 



74 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

analyzed, compared, put together ^-JZ^^ZTn"oS^e^"\i7r^^^ 
become a part of the °^>^d ^ °7,^^^;!!^^n^n"ef tS o^^^^^^^^ and the 

sions of sound are received in ^^^^^^J^JJ^.^^^^'into ideas which finally 

L^^-'/wS ala'-Lv tSSn/wSS'?Uer'?.ou.t'; product, are 

developed." . . , „^ f^«m tvip mnvements of the muscles. 

In like manner we --^ceive .aeas '™" */,^3°3™glments. are sup- 
"The Inner surfaces of the fn's. .^e "f^^'f/o, ^irert motor percep- 
plied with sensory n«"«%™'"f,l°^° '''d%oimd form the basis of the 
tion. onst as the f"^";"'^ °' "^^Lse motor percepts are developed 

-tTsr? i^eat whtct 5"H;-£tr'j^o^f'treVrand':;o7'o°, Z 

Ss rrefhr S ,rn^Sr-ron'ly"Mnr,;.^nowled.e which 

'"f ^iit? ;;^t"o?r ^h<;;^Arord^nL7':orh^pfaf r^^; 

rtLr'a'Lrh^y'Sa^arni,?^ In these are there^ 

motor training. But the large ^otoi area o the wain g » j^ 

inhnitely varied -<> --/^ -„S'r«Tf' moto feat and especially that 

pSSn'^ofll'iSull'areSrei^^heringymnaU^ 

skilled labor: narnely the five finges and » e.i^n^^_y^ ^_^^^^ ^^^^_ 

'■■i-SsT si^?cirfrroVrr'srrii"S. fund^ 

running, jumping, lifting. The ^f ^^^^''^ ""f f,^ ^„7e arr^ tre S. 
ing the more delicate operations: the muscles ^f t^^ ^^re ai m^ the na 

the vocal organs. Physical training m. the form ^f^ 8^^"?,^;'^ ^ra n 
well-considered games, reach the fundamental muscles, .manual tram 
Tng reading aloud, singing, playing a musical instrument, tram the 
^^B^rSerels^lnother factor in the P-^^- and that factor is t^^^^ 
sninal cord. The spinal cord relieves the bram of a '^^ff,,^"^^"!', ". 
l-^JrT.' '1,1 automatic. ,^ahm.a,nrovemen,s are made nde, the mrec^ 

S„!'h„ri:rert"J,egatlf'?oVhe\pinarcord. We generally walk 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 75 

without being conscious of any mental effort. Can any of us forget the 
mental as well as the physical strain involved in our first efforts to 
master that persistently perverse piece of mechanism, the bicycle? Did 
not the process demand our undivided attention? But now that the 
spinal cord has relieved us of all, or nearly all, anxiety concerning equi- 
librium and locomotion, we can enjoy the scenery, and converse with 
our wheeling friends as easily as we do when walking. 

Here is the answer to the second objection: The unskilled laborer 
uses the fundamental muscles. The skilled mechanic may use the ac- 
cessory muscles, but their movements have become largely or wholly 
automatic; that is, their control is under the direction of the spinal 
cord. The brain is scarcely called into exercise. 

Here also we see the need of intelligence in devising and supervis- 
ing the work of a manual training school. The manual exercises should 
develop the accessory muscles; the gymnasium and healthy play will 
care for the fundamental muscles. The manual exercises should always 
be under the direction of the brain, not of the spinal cord. When we 
convert the manual training school into a manufacturing establishment, 
when we seek skill and rapidity in the production of many articles 
of the same kind, we have begun to transfer the control of the pupil's 
operations from his brain to his spinal cord; we are ceasing to develop 
brain power. 

Do the observed effects of manual training agree with this philoso- 
phy? What can be learned from the men and women who have de-- 
voted years to the intelligent study of pupils in manual training 
schools? 

From a mass of testimony from the schools of America and Europe, 
time permits only a few quotations. The Report of the Boston Commit- 
tee on Manual Training, issued in 1891, says: 

"Your committee are not so enthusiastic as to believe that the in- 
troduction of wood-working into all our schools is to solve all our dif- 
ficult problems, or in any way be a substitute for the present intel- 
lectual studies. The fundamental things, reading, writing, arithmetic, 
history, geography, which are the basis of all education, must still be 
taught. But on the other hand, we do believe that a systematic in- 
troduction of tnis kind of work will be a priceless boon in many ways. 
Many boys, after they have been three years in a primary school and 
three years in a grammar school, become weary of books and exceed- 
ingly restless. To such minds; doing something with the hands is a 
great relief, and brings back the waning interest. It carries the boy 
arounrl and over that critical period in Ms life when he is too old to be 
boy, and yet not old enough to feel the restraints and responsibilities 
of coming manhood. 

"Such training is not only educational but disciplinary. The boy 
works off some of his surplus energy at the bench, and is more ready 
for his book. In a neighboring city, where boys were from the worst 
homes, and often unnjlv, the giving them tools to use, and work to 
do. changed their whole habit of thought. Manhood was aroused; they 
took pride in their tools and their bench, and were stimulated to care 
in the performance of every task. The experience of the Lyman School 
at Westborough is valuable upon this point. This school is composed 
of nearlv two hundred bovs, sent here, most of them, for petty lar- 
ceny, and fhey are constantly changing. In the manual training shop, 
where the work of all the boys is together side by side, no boy for 
nine monDis has been known to interfere with the work of any other, 
although tTie temntaflon for the poor workman quietly to substitute 
some better work for his own must at times be very great. In the time 
that this work has been carried on, only one boy out of four hundred 
has been obliged finally to be forbidden the opportunity to learn, be- 



76 WISCONSIN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 

cause Oi unwillingness to conform to the rules. Even to boys who 
have taken their first steps in crime, there seems to be a fascination 
about this work which begins at once to develop in them that which 
is manly and right, and leads them upwards to better things. And it 
is not necessary for us to go outside of our own city for illustrations. 
The change that has been wrought in some of our own boys is most 
wonderful. Before the tool work was introduced they were unruly and 
almost ungovernable, except by severe measures. Now all is changed; 
they have learned the law of exactness, the value of time; there is self- 
reliance and dignity awakened, and even the suggestion that they may, 
under certain circumstances, be deprived of their tools, is the sever- 
est of all punishments. Furthermore, in the two grammar schools 
v/here this work has been done under the best conditions, it has been 
found that as much has been done intellectually as before, when the 
whole time was given to regular studies, — a statement that has some- 
times been questioned." 

Permit me to remark parenthetically that while for centuries the 
game of Jackstraws has been played by boys, I find no record of its 
use as a preventive of, or remedy for, the crime of petit larceny, or for 
the habit ol cheating in play. 

The school at Westborough is a reform school. Let us turn to an- 
other class of youth, the children of the city of Brookline, that little 
city of wealth, culture, and refinement, which has had the wisdom to 
preserve its autonomy, notwithstanding the blandishments of its neigh- 
bor, Boston. It is a city of ''fads:'" in its schools are found kindergar- 
tens, sewing, cooking, drawing, manual training. After years of ex- 
perience, the Superintendent writes: "The School Committee of Brook- 
line are in full sympathy with the idea that the best and broadest edu- 
cation is assured onlv when, to the ordinary studies, hand and eye 
training are added. The theory upon which the committee are work- 
ing is, that hand training belongs properly to every grade; that it 
should begin in the kindergarten and proceed progressively through the 
Primary, Grammar, and High schools. This scheme is more compre- 
hensive and liberal than that which admits the feasibility of working 
in grammar grades in such materials as clay and paper, but reserves 
all tool work for the Manual Training High School. 

"The success that has attended the development of tool work with 
pupils of grammar grades in the W. H. Lincoln School, is a sufficient 
answer to any such claim. 

"It would appear that the devotees of higher manual training are 
in danger of making the mistake that has ever marred our educational 
system, viz.. that of postponing those subiects that are most-stimulating 
and enriching, like Natural Science, History and Literature, to a point 
in the course when the vast majority of the pupils have passed out to 
their life work. 

"We want the most nourishing mental food, and the most universal 
forms of hand training for the grammar schools. In no other wav can 
we economize educational means, and give the masses that broad and 
liberal training demanded bv present social conditions. 

"Teachers who witness daily lessons in hand training soon learn that 
its value consists larselv in the emphasis given to sense activity, and 
Peek to applv this principle while instructing in other branches. Thus 
the tone and spirit of these schools is being graduallv improved." 

Dr. .Tohn D. Runkle. formerly President of the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technologv, and still a professor in the Institute, has been a 
member of the school committee of Brookline since 1882. In a pri- 
vate letter, after telling me their plans for the future. Dr. Runkle says: 
"So you see we are makig a careful study of the question of the 
variety an3 extent that hand studies can be carried in a grammar 



PAPERS READ BEFORE THE CONVENTION, 1898-99. 77 

school. Thus far we have been well satisfied with the result. There 
is but one opinion among the teachers, and all who have carefully fol- 
lowed the experiment as to quickening effect and increased interest 
and success in all school work. The attendance has never been so good, 
and many more pupils now remain to the end of the course. We ex- 
pect to see good results from this close relation between the grammar 
and manual training schools." 

But I am asked to give some facts directly connected with my own 
experience, and my conclusions therefrom. I shall attempt to do this 
very briefly. 

1. A judicious amount of manual training does not diminish the 
amount or the quality of pupils' academic work. The Chicago Manual 
Training School devotes one and a half hours a day to shop work, 
and one hour daily to drawing, five days in the week. That is, twelve 
and a half hours a week to shop work and drawing. One might rea- 
sonably expect that a boy's academic work would be considerably de- 
creased by the abstraction of so many hours of school time. But such 
is not the case. Not only does the manual training school boy accom- 
plish as much in book work as the average high school boy in the same 
time, but in some studies, as geometry and physics, his knowledge is 
more thorough and lasting. Graduates from our three years' course 
are admitted on an equality with the graduates of four year high 
schools to the engineering courses of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology, of Cornell university, of the universities of Michigan, Illi- 
nois, Wisconsin, and others. Some of these young men have taken prizes 
and honors. Some of them have been admitted to advanced standing, 
and have graduated from Cornell, Michigan, and Purdue, in three years. 
One school of technology admits our graduates of three years, and de- 
mands an additional year in mathematics from many .high schools. 
These facts jprove that our graduates hold their own side by side with 
graduates of four year high schools. Besides, they are excused from a 
, large amount of shop vi'ork and drawing, which the high school boy 
is obliged to do, notwithstanding the fact that his time in the univer- 
sity is of much more value to him than it was in the high school. This 
extra time the manual training school boy has for other work or for 
play. 

I shall not, I trust, be understood as saying anything derogatory to 
the high school. I am simply comparing two high schools, one with, 
the other without, manual training. Neither do I pretend to say that 
a manual training school boy accumulates more knowledge in three 
years than a boy without manual training accumulates in four years. 
I believe that I understate the truth when I say that his acaaemlc work 
is not decreased by his manual training. 

I am not alone in this contention. I find this statement in the Prince- 
ton Review: Among the 110,000 pupils in the public schools of Phila- 
adelphia, those who attended Mr. Leland's Art School "stood highest 
of all in all studies." 

Of many illustrations of the truth for which I am contending that 
I found in Europe, a few years ago, one amused me. The head master 
of one of the London Board schools had become, from a bitter oppo- 
nent of manual training, its most enthusiastic advocate. Asking the 
reason of this conversion, I was told that it was wholly a financial mat- 
ter. It is no doubt well known to you all that the grant, or, as we 
would say, the appropriation of the Imperial government to each school 
depends on the number of promotions in that school. This head master 
opposed tlie introduction of manual training into his school for fear 
that it would interfere with his pupils' academic work, and thus re- 
duce the amount of money appropriated to his school. However, he 
was persuaded to experiment. His fear and trembling were turned to 



Library of Congress 
Branch Bindery, 1902 



»''* '-«• 



.^,«. 



a^TT' ^^p^'-o fW<<. 







sw 


^^^^■^v^ ^^^^Hi^^H 


mm.^MW 








f 






l^ 




m^mMit- 


#^ .< . z 


1 
% - 


•"•vt 









LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 407 224 3 



■>^, -^^ 



•"IK' 



<««& 



■**Wf#l^. '1^ ■ ^ i^J 






^^*(.^ 



